


A study in humanity

by StrangeNoise



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Bars and Pubs, Canon-Typical Violence, Crime Fighting, Crimes & Criminals, Detectives, Doctor!Nines, First Kiss, Gavin is a grump, Genius!Gavin, Hints to domestic abuse, Injury, Kidnapping, Love Confessions, M/M, Medical Procedures, Mentions of prostituion and brothels, More Pining, Moving In Together, Murder, Partners to Lovers, Pining, Smoking, Very brief mention of period-typical homophobia, mentions of violence against women, period language, taking care of each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:13:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27261802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeNoise/pseuds/StrangeNoise
Summary: Working with the most successful detective in all of victorian England, Nines thinks he has seen it all in the past year. But when the two men take on the case of a kidnapped child, Nines suddenly has to deal with much more than the criminals of London. He finds himself with his own case to solve when it comes to finally confronting the feelings he's been harbouring for his partner for a long time now...
Relationships: Background Tina Chen/ST300 Android(s), Hints at Luther/Kara, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 26
Kudos: 97
Collections: Reed900 Reverse Big Bang





	1. The game is on

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween, everyone!  
> I come to present the fic I wrote for the Reed900ReverseBigBang! I got to work with the incredibly talented and also extremely nice [Josebean](https://twitter.com/jxse_the_bean) who made a ton of amazing art for this fic that I cannot wait for you all to see!
> 
> And another shoutout and big thanks to [SpringlockedSpectre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringlockedSpectre/pseuds/SpringlockedSpectre) for betaing and all the nice feedback!
> 
> This fic will have 5 chapters total and I hope you enjoy them all!

The air over London was cold and damp on this particular Thursday morning. A thick fog hung over the city, making it hard for carriages and automobiles alike to get to where they needed to be.  
Richard Arkait checked the watch he kept neatly on a chain in the chest pocket of his coat. It was already past nine. The man, who mostly went by the name of ‘Nines’ these days frowned and considered his options. He was on the way to the man, who had given him his nickname just after being introduced to him about a year ago. Nines had just been back from duty as a medic in the war, a slowly paling scar bearing testament to his service for his country. By mere chance, he had been consulted by someone working with Gavin Reed, the most famous detective in England. Reed, unwilling to remember Nines’ actual name, had given him his nickname in reference to the regiment he had served in and though the brunet had been infuriated about it at the time, the name had stuck. By now, he was almost exclusively referred to by it and did not wish to change that anymore. 

  
It had also been during that time that he had become Detective Reed’s partner. They had worked together ever since and this morning, too, Nines was on his way to the detective’s flat. And that was where his frustration over the slow-moving carriage came in.  
Their first client of the day was set to arrive no later than half-past ten and the carriage was barely moving. Knowing his partner Gavin’s tendencies to wake up just before their clients arrived any day, the brunet decided it was probably for the better to leave the carriage behind and make the rest of the way to Gavin’s home on foot. A quick look out of the window told him he was correct in that assessment. He was only two streets over from where Gavin lived and if the speed at which the carriage was moving forward at the moment was worth anything to go by, he might be stuck here for longer than he was comfortable with.

So, he grabbed his cane and signaled to the driver that he wished to stop. He handed the man his due and then hurried down the street.  
It was one of the better parts of London and still, Nines stuck out with his far too proper clothes. But he liked to be dressed the way that was expected of him and sometimes even more intricately than that. On their first meeting, Gavin had commented on how Nines apparently liked to wear fancy clothes to protect himself from the outside world’s expectations. Even if that was the truth, Nines would never admit that to Gavin. But right now, his clothing did not feel much like a talisman either way. People all across the street were looking at him with curiosity clear on their faces – whether that was because of his clothes or the fact that people knew who he was and where he was most likely headed, Nines was unable to say. Working with the most famous detective known in all of England definitely came with its more unsettling moments. All Nines could say with any degree of certainty was that peoples’ gazes followed him until he had almost reached his destination.

As he caught sight of the house he was headed towards, a sigh fought its way out of Nines’ throat. At the top of the stairs that led up to the house’s entryway, Gavin’s landlady, a woman by the name of Tina Chen, who had by some strange twist of fate managed to befriend the detective, was waiting and looking around anxiously. When her eyes landed on Nines, she visibly deflated with relief. One might assume that her relief would devolve upon the brunet – but working with Gavin for well over a year now had taught Nines a thing or two. One of the more important lessons he had learned was that if Tina was relieved to see him, it was, more often than not, because she had found someone else she could burden with the task of looking after Gavin or calming him down after a tantrum or some such.  
Therefore, as familiar as he was with situations like these, Nines squared his shoulders and steeled himself for what possibly awaited him inside the house.  
  
“Thank goodness, you’re here”, Tina sighed when Nines reached the foot of the stairs, “Stephanie has been looking after him for the time being, but we are truly at our wit’s end.” Tina ran a hand through her hair that was terribly unkempt this morning and turned to unlock the door. Nines followed her into the house, not even bothering to be upset with her lack of proper greeting. It was not the first time a day started like this for both of them.

“What has he done now?”, Nines asked instead, as they stepped into the hallway. He closed the door behind him and then quickly followed Tina, who had already made her way halfway up the stairs. She stopped where she was and turned to answer Nines’ question.

  
“He did what he always does when he gets bored”, she said and Nines did not have to look too hard for the distinct mix of worry and irritation in her voice, “He went and drank himself silly. When he came back just a few hours ago, he gave Stephanie and me quite the fright. We thought he was a burglar or worse. But no. Just England’s most famous detective being so drunk he could not make it up the stairs to his own bed without our help.”

  
Nines pinched the bridge of his nose and sent a sympathetic look Tina’s way. The young woman only sighed once more and continued her way up the stairs, Nines following on her heels.  
It was far from the first time something like this had happened in this house. Gavin was brilliant almost beyond comprehension when he had something to keep his brain occupied with, but he also had an ill temper and a tendency to get bored and engage in self-destructive behavior to silence the far too many thoughts in his head. More often than not, when he had not had a case that seemed interesting enough to him in too long, Gavin would go and drink excessively and Nines, Tina, and anyone else who got in his way would have to bear the brunt of his anger.  
  
So, as they further ascended the stairs, Nines was fully prepared to have to deal with a needlessly angry Gavin, as he had been forced to do many times before. Instead, when he entered the detective’s flat, it was eerily quiet. Nines walked along behind Tina, who led him to Gavin’s bedroom. In there, the detective was on his bed fast asleep – or possibly unconscious, Nines could not really tell – and unmoving. On the edge of the bed sat Stephanie, the young lady who lived with Tina. Most people assumed that they were best friends and, at first, Nines had too. But it quickly turned out that the two women actually shared a much deeper bond. Gavin and Tina even referred to Stephanie as Tina’s wife and after a bit Nines had taken to doing so as well. Their relationship surely was something society would frown upon but they were happier than Nines had ever seen a man and woman together so he could find no fault in it.  
  
At the moment, however, Stephanie looked far from happy. She looked like she had barely slept at all that night and if Gavin had really acted the way Tina had said, Nines could very well imagine why that might have been the case. 

“Thank heavens you’re here, Doctor”, Stephanie sighed and rose to her feet, “I have been keeping an eye on him ever since he returned from his night out. Ever since we put him to bed, he has mostly been unconscious. I made sure he was breathing…”

“Should have made sure he wasn’t any more”, Tina cursed beside Nines. The brunet knew she did not mean it but she was prone to relying on harsh words whenever she was overly upset about something.  
“Thank you, Stephanie”, Nines said softly, ignoring Tina’s angry words, “I will take care of Reed from here on out. You should get some rest.”

Stephanie nodded and made her way across the room to where Tina was. The landlady took her hand and they left the room to retreat to their own flat, leaving Nines alone with the unconscious body of Gavin. He walked towards him, made sure he was still breathing, and took his pulse. Then, he checked his pocket watch. Their client was set to arrive barely more than ten minutes from now and it did not seem like Gavin would be waking up on his own anytime soon.

Considering ways to wake him, Nines’ gaze eventually landed on a jug of water Stephanie or Tina must have left on a nearby table in case Gavin woke up and needed a drink. Nines, however, grabbed the jug and unceremoniously emptied its contents over the detective’s head. Some doctors in town believed that pouring cold water over a drunk was actually harmful, but it fulfilled its intended purpose this time around and that was all Nines really cared about.  
  
With a shriek Gavin shot up into a sitting position, his eyes opened wide and breathing rapid and shallow from the shock.

“What on earth-“, he began, his expression darkening immediately after his vision was clear enough to make out who he was talking to, but Nines did not allow him to speak any further.

“Good morning, detective”, he said, sounding far cheerier than he felt and than was strictly appropriate, “You should get ready. Our first client will arrive shortly.”  
  
“To hell with that client”, Gavin cursed as he stumbled out of bed. He had to hold on to one of the massive, wooden bedposts to not fall over and closed his eyes. The detective was paler than usual and his eyes were rimmed red, most likely from too much alcohol combined with his typical lack of sleep, Nines assumed. He sighed deeply.

“You seem bored”, the brunet stated as Gavin finally let go of the bedpost and took a few unsure steps towards the door, “Maybe this client will have an interesting case for you, something to keep your mind occupied with.”

Gavin only responded with some disgruntled noises as he stumbled past Nines and out of the bedroom. The brunet watched him move about and was not happy. It was not the first time that Gavin had gotten so bored and upset with the world he would even dismiss potential cases but it was a chore to deal with him in moments like these and Nines was not looking forward to it.

“You should really get changed now, Reed”, he sighed as he watched the other man stagger about the flat. The stench of whiskey and sweat permeated the air and the doctor was not too sure if even opening all windows in the flat would be enough to get rid of the smell in time before their client arrived. He was just about to remind Gavin of the damage he was doing to his body as well as his mind when the other man grumbled and tore his shirt open. Nines’ gaze flitted from the other man’s back to the floorboards, where he first heard and then saw buttons land and dance across the dark wood.  
“How many shirts have you ripped apart like that this month?”, the brunet asked, exasperation clear in his voice. He thought he should have expected it – it was far from the first time that Gavin got overwhelmed with the buttons on his clothing when he got drunk and simply tore them off – but it was an unusual sight every time it happened. Nines could already hear Tina complain when Gavin would inevitably make his way to the downstairs flat to ask his landlady’s partner to mend the shirt for him. But then, suddenly, the doorbell rang downstairs, announcing the arrival of their client.  
  
Not wasting another second, Nines rushed into Gavin’s bedroom. He expertly maneuvered between piles of books, papers, and clothing to get to the huge dresser in one corner of the room. Trying not to breathe in too deeply as the smell in this room was even worse than in the main room, Nines grabbed a shirt out of a half-open drawer and hurried back to where Gavin was. He tossed the shirt at the smaller man, ordering him to “Get changed” once more before straightening his own jacket and leaving for the stairwell to get downstairs.

  
At the foot of the stairs, Tina was waiting already, arguing loudly with a man Nines assumed to be their client. The man was of average height and build but he definitely carried some weight around his middle. His clothing was well-worn and had been mended in several places. Gavin would surely be able to figure out the man’s profession from the thread count of his jacket alone but Nines lacked such skill and could only assume that the man belonged to the lower class workers of the city.

“Mr. Williams?”, Nines called out over the arguing, and instantly, both Tina and their client fell silent. The man nodded and Nines put on a smile that was pleasant but also made sure Mr. Williams knew he did not appreciate Tina being yelled at.

“Please, come upstairs. Mr. Reed is already waiting for you.”

Of course, Nines could not be sure that the detective was actually waiting for their client. He hoped as he guided Mr. Williams up the stairs, that, by now, Gavin would be dressed and look somewhat presentable again.

  
When they entered the main room of the flat, Gavin sat in the corner of the room in his only armchair, which he had moved next to a window he must have opened while Nines had been gone. In the man’s lap sat his cat, Elva, and purred as she went about cleaning her fur. The top two buttons on Gavin’s shirt were undone and it made Nines fingers itch with the desire to close them and run a hand through his hair for good measure so he wouldn’t look quite as disheveled as he did right now – but given the state the brunet had left him behind in it was probably an impressive feat that Gavin even got this cleaned up in the short time he’d had to prepare himself.  
Before Nines could get further into the room, Mr. Williams pushed past him and moved right towards where Gavin sat. With a groan, he let himself fall onto a wooden chair opposite of Gavin’s and ran a hand through his greasy hair.

  
  
“You must help me, Mr. Reed”, he gasped, burying his face in his hands. Suddenly, he looked very defeated and less angry than he had downstairs.

“How can Mr. Reed be of service, Mr. Williams?”, Nines asked and moved from his spot near the doorway to Gavin’s side. Of course, the stubborn man hadn’t thought to place an extra chair for Nines and the brunet was left to stand next to the armchair like an overgrown guard dog.

“My daughter, Alice…”, Mr. Williams began, his voice shaking suddenly, “She’s gone...”

“Which obviously means you must employ the services of someone of my caliber instead of letting Scotland Yard do the work they’re paid to do”, Gavin interrupted before Mr. Williams could get any further. He looked irked and his voice was sharp and harsh as ever despite the residue alcohol still in his system. And yet, Nines could not help but roll his eyes in annoyance. He had expected such a reaction, but it bothered him every time.

Time and again, it was beyond him how someone as gifted as Gavin was could have such an insufferable temper at the same time. And of course, Nines knew that many geniuses tended to be rather strange and act in ways that others could not easily comprehend, and yet he wished Gavin was different sometimes. But if anyone were to ask him what specifically he would change about the man, he would not be able to point something out.It was a strange and oftentimes deeply frustrating mixture of emotions and the only way Nines could let them out was to glare at the side of Gavin’s head, hoping Mr. Williams wouldn’t see it or think anything of it in his current state.

“I’ve been there”, the man said, wringing his hands together, “No one would listen to me. They take one look at my appearance and decide that a poor, young girl running away from home is nothing that needs investigation.”

“And what makes you think I would be interested in searching for young girls, who run away from home?”, Gavin inquired and it cost Nines all of his self-control not to kick the man sitting next to him.

“She didn’t run away!”, Mr. Williams exclaimed with a vehemence that had both Gavin and Nines flinching and caused Elva to hop off the detective’s chest and retreat to a calmer spot in the flat.

“Alice is only nine! She would never run away! I gave her no reason to-“, Mr. Williams interrupted himself and stared off into the far corner of the room before shaking his head and then continuing, “She loves that housekeeper that works for me. If she had run away, she would have told Kara. But Kara assures me she knows nothing – and neither does that friend of hers, Luther. Alice must have been stolen away. She wouldn’t…”

Mr. Williams trailed off again, staring miserably at his own hands. The desperation on his face was in stark contrast to the look of utter boredom on Gavin’s features. As much as he would have liked to, Nines could not tell why the detective cared so little about a young girl that had gone missing apparently without a trace. Sure, Gavin had solved mysteries of a much higher caliber for the past years but he had made it an important cornerstone of his work not to work only for the rich and influential in London. Helping Mr. Williams seemed like something that would, if not fill Gavin’s pockets lavishly, help him gain some prestige, and possibly help him get rid of the odd rumour people liked to spread about him. And, most importantly to Nines, it would give the detective something to do and hopefully better his mood.

“So, assuming your daughter did, in fact, not run away…what would anyone want with her, Mr. Williams?”, Gavin wanted to know next, “You do not look like someone with the means to pay a handsome ransom to free your daughter again. So why should anyone steal her?” When Mr. Williams only looked confused, gaping, and at a loss for words, Nines decided to insert himself into the conversation.

“What Detective Reed is trying to find out is if anyone would have any reason to take Alice away from you”, he said, knowing full well Gavin had only wanted to insult their client with his question, “Did you possibly get in a fight with someone, who would do such a thing?”

“I do not live in the finest quarters, as you can imagine”, Mr. Williams answered immediately, “There’s all kinds of shady characters about. But none of them would have any reason to steal my Alice…”

Nines nodded his head slowly and turned towards Gavin to see if he had any thoughts on that. But since the brunet had asked a question, it seemed Gavin had now given the conversation over to him entirely – which was not a bad thing as such, given how he had acted so far. But Nines knew that, in the end, it all depended on whether the detective was willing to take the case or not. Therefore, letting him ask all these questions but leaving him in the dark about whether it would lead to them helping someone or not did not help Nines focus his thoughts to ask proper questions.  
  
He was just about to ask Mr. Williams further questions about the area of the city he lived in when the man seemed to remember something of his own.

“There’s a brothel a few streets over”, he said, nodding to himself, “They…sometimes they take girls away and they’re never seen or heard from again. God, if they’ve gotten their hands on my little girl…”

“I assure you, Mr. Williams if your daughter has somehow fallen into their hands, Detective Reed and I will find her”, Nines told him and though he focussed his gaze on Mr. Williams alone, the brunet could feel the fury of Gavin’s glare against his temple. Of course, he knew full well that it was not his place to make assurances for both of them – especially not when Gavin was so insistent on not taking the case in the first place. But this was exactly why Nines had chosen to do it. 

  
Gavin might be unwilling to take on a case like this, claiming it was far too common an occurrence for someone of his caliber to get involved, but deep down Nines knew that the detective was going down a spiral of anger and depression that could only be broken by a case – any case, really. It had happened before that Gavin had behaved like this and every time, all that had been needed for him to get back to his old self had been something that he could sink his teeth into. And Nines would do his best to provide that for him - even if he had been wanting to let Gavin decide for himself until just now. Within a few short moments, Nines had made up his mind and decided that he would have to help the detective out of his slump whether he wanted or not.

“So you will be taking on my case?”, Mr. Williams wanted to know, looking somewhat hopeful for the first time all day. Nines was just about to speak again but Gavin cut him off at the pass.

“I will”, Gavin answered much to Nines’ surprise, “There will be no more need for you to worry about the fate of your daughter. The two of you will be reunited before you know it.”

The conversation with Mr. Williams did not last much longer after Gavin had assured the man that he would be investigating the disappearance of his daughter. That did not mean, however, that Gavin was in any hurry to actually begin working on the case. Instead, it was already well into the afternoon when – after Gavin took his sweet time getting ready and a hearty lunch they had been invited to in Tina’s flat – the two men finally made their way to the brothel.

“You do not have to tell me but I am curious”, Nines began after a few minutes of silence, “What made you accept this case after you were so insistent on not taking it at first?”

“I knew I could either take the case or have you nagging me for weeks on end”, Gavin answered bluntly but not without the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, “I simply chose the lesser of two evils.”

Nines could not help but scoff and then shake his head at this comment but at the same time, he was glad that Gavin seemed to be regaining his sense of humour.  
Only speaking to one another occasionally, the two men walked through the neighbourhood Mr. Williams lived in and finally reached the address he had given him. The establishment did not look as shady as Nines had at first assumed but he still felt some amount of discomfort as they entered.

The woman running the brothel looked like she was ready to strangle whoever it was that had sent Gavin and Nines her way. There was a distrustful glint in her eyes and her mouth was a thin line as she led the two men to a back room to speak with them.

On their way there, the three of them walked past several women in various stages of undress – and even two men, at the sight of which, Nines quickly averted his gaze. At the same time, the brunet tried to be on the lookout for any young girls that might fit the description of Mr. Williams’ daughter. He did not see anyone that even vaguely looked like Alice and Nines realized with relief that none of the girls were even nearly as young as Alice Williams.

Before Nines could really think about what this discovery meant for their case, however, they had reached the room the brothel owner had wanted to lead them to. Nines was tempted to laugh, as it was so different from the front of the business. It looked like the prim and proper office of a politician or maybe a bank clerk, except maybe for the ottoman in the corner on which a young, dark-skinned man sat, a sheet of paper in his lap and a piece of charcoal in hand.

“Could you bring us another chair, Markus?”, the woman asked as soon as they entered, “These gentlemen wish to speak to me about our business.”

“Of course, North”, the man named Markus answered and put his drawing utensils aside. He looked at both Gavin and Nines very intently for several long moments before he hurried out of the room and swiftly returned with a chair.  
  
“Now, what brings you here, gentlemen?”, North asked once they were all seated. She was on the other side of a massive wooden table that was placed between them like a barrier. Markus had, in the meantime, left his former seat and stood behind her as if to guard her. Next to Nines, Gavin leaned forward in his chair and fixed his gaze firmly on North.  
  
“I am an investigator and currently trying to find a missing girl”, he said.

“I know who you are. Everyone in London does”, North answered coolly, “And it doesn’t tell me what brings you to me.”

“One Mr. Todd Williams suggested to me that your establishment is taking young girls away from their families”, Gavin said. Nines was certain he was going to say more but the woman on the other side of the table slammed her hands down onto the wood and glared at him so fiercely Gavin did not dare open his mouth again.

“Todd Williams”, she called out, scoffing and shaking her head in anger, “He seems like the type to fabricate accusations like this.”

“North, please calm down”, the dark-skinned man by her side said but North was having none of it

“I will not be silent, Markus, while this man slanders the good name of this establishment”, she hissed before turning back towards Nines and Gavin. She looked angrier than Nines had seen anyone in a very long time and he was inclined to believe in her innocence if only out of fear that she was going to haunt him in his dreams if he did not.

“Did Mr. Williams happen to tell you that he was a client here not too long ago?”, North asked furiously. Of course, Mr. Williams had done no such thing but it did not surprise Nines that he would frequent an establishment such as this and it did not surprise him that North knew him. “After his wife died, he came here frequently for a time, spent half his monthly wage on my girls, and took all his ill moods out on them.” At this point, North had to take a deep breath, possibly to calm herself down. Nines could see that her whole frame was shaking. “I have never seen his daughter once in my life but if he beats her half as poorly as he did my girls I’d have half a mind to truly make her vanish."

“So you do take young girls from their families and make them vanish?”, Gavin asked, brows raised, but Nines found no judgement in his expression. The detective had often displayed sympathies with those mistreated by fortune so it came as no surprise that this would be the case here too. But Nines also knew that Gavin would not let someone go unpunished if he had a feeling they were guilty of the crimes they were accused of.

“We do no such thing here”, Markus stated firmly, getting a word in before North could go on another tirade, “What we do here-“

“Those girls come to us”, North exclaimed, her chest heaving with deep, shuddering breaths, “They come to us because they are beaten and abused by their husbands or their fathers and they know they will find a safe haven here. We steal no one away from their family but if a girl comes to us looking for help, we have the resources to send them far away, where they will be among each other and no man will ever hurt them again in all their lives.” North looked at Gavin and Nines, defiance on her face and head held high. “If helping someone in need is a crime, I will gladly be handed over to Scotland Yard.”

  
Nines glanced at Gavin out of the corner of his eye to gauge his reaction and when he saw the expression on the detective’s face, he knew that he would not hand North and the others in to Scotland Yard unless he was absolutely certain that they were involved in some more serious crime. Right now, Gavin did not seem to believe that North and Markus were engaged in any criminal activity beyond helping young women escape homes they wanted to leave either way – or at least that was what Nines assumed. Over the past year that he had worked closely with the detective, he had learned to read him quite well. At times, the man was still a mystery, even to him, but Nines prided himself in the certainty that there was no one he knew, who could read Gavin as well as he did. And at the moment, everything in the detective’s posture and expression told him that the man believed North.

  
“That leaves the question of why Mr. Williams would suspect you to have abducted his daughter”, Gavin said after several moments of silence. Opposite him, a scornful expression appeared on North’s face.

“I can easily answer this one”, she told them, “He did not take kindly to being made to leave this establishment and being prohibited from returning. But he was drinking more and more and I needed to protect those who work for me. Many men have tried to blacken this establishment’s good name after I sent them away but none of them have succeeded yet. And I trust this one won’t, either.”  


  
Not much was said after that. Gavin thanked North for her cooperation, and she led them back outside.

“What do we do now?”, Nines wanted to know after they had climbed into a carriage that would bring them back to Gavin’s flat, “This was our only trace and Mr. Williams said he cannot think of anyone else, who would do something like this to him.”

“I fear we will have to question him again”, Gavin answered, looking awfully dismayed by the prospect, “I am certain there must be something he did not tell us. Whether he did not want to or could not remember it himself at the moment, I cannot say. But there must be more."

“I am glad you are finally getting invested in our case”, Nines said and could not stop a self-satisfied smirk from spreading on his features. He knew Gavin well by now and had expected that his childishly petulant behaviour from earlier would soon make way for genuine curiosity and the desire to solve the mystery.

“Nonsense”, Gavin replied but very obviously did not meet Nines’ gaze, “I merely want to exhaust all our options so I can prove to Mr. Williams that his precious little girl ran off on her own after all.”

  
  
Nines rolled his eyes at that. It was obvious to him that Gavin was only sticking to the theory of Alice running away for the sake of being in the right. But he would not call him out on it – not right now, at least. As long as Gavin still put some actual effort into finding the girl, Nines could not care less how he justified it to himself. He only wanted to help reunite a family and if in the process, he could help to get Gavin out of a slump of boredom and depression, he was all the happier.

Because if he was being honest with himself, Nines hated seeing Gavin like this. He had gotten used to the detective’s temper and moods, sure, but that did not mean that he enjoyed them. Especially not, if they made it clear that, deep down, Gavin was hurting and discontented. Sometimes the brunet wondered what had made Gavin so unable to channel his emotions so they would come out in any other way but anger and frustration – but he had never assumed it his place to ask. So, that part of Gavin remained a mystery to him and all Nines could do was try and help the detective get through those dark times as best as he could.

The rest of the ride home was comparatively quiet and Nines was not entirely sure if Gavin was sulking, thinking about their case, or simply too hungover to provide any good conversation.

  
By the time they arrived at Gavin’s flat once more, the detective immediately wrote down a message asking Mr. Williams to pay them another visit the next day and had Nines give it to a young boy advertising his services as a mail carrier up and down the street. When he returned to the flat, Gavin was sitting in his favourite armchair, a pipe between his lips and seemingly deep in thought. Nines assumed there was no conversation to be had now, either, and instead went to the kitchen to clean at least a few of the dishes piling up in the sink so he could fix some tea for Gavin and himself and feed the cat that was following on his heels and yowling miserably.  
  
The sun had already set long ago and Gavin and Nines had been wondering for a while, why it took Mr. Williams so long to answer their message. Nines was just preparing to leave, both men assuming there would be no reply until the next morning when Tina suddenly entered the flat with the young boy they had sent to Mr. Williams with their message by her side.

“Oh, so you didn’t just take my money and run”, Gavin commented, raising a brow at the boy, who looked visibly uncomfortable.

“No, Sir”, the boy immediately replied, “When I arrived Mr. Williams was gone drinking somewhere but his housekeeper said I could stay and wait a while, so I did. She made me tea and dinner and all that…”

The boy looked excited for a moment but then his face fell and he did not look at anyone as he spoke again.

“Then a peeler showed up at the house and told the housekeeper that Mr. Williams has been found dead.” 


	2. The art of deduction

The next day, Nines arrived at Gavin’s flat even earlier in the day than he had the previous one. Upon receiving the news of Mr. Williams’ death, Gavin and Nines had originally wanted to go to his house right away. But just as they had been about to leave, another messenger arrived, saying he had been sent by Nines’ brother, Connor, who worked for Scotland Yard and was on the scene to help with investigations. Via his message, Connor had asked Gavin and Nines to let the Yard finish its work in peace and refrain from getting involved until the next day. Nines had been annoyed. Gavin had been livid. Tina had sent both messengers home with a hefty tip and then spent the next half hour convincing the two men to do Scotland Yard’s bidding. When they had finally agreed, neither man had been particularly happy with the situation, but as it had seemed, it could not be helped. Nines had taken a carriage home, cursing circumstance and his brother all the way until he arrived.  
  
But now, a new day was dawning over London, and Gavin and Nines were ready to talk to Mr. Williams’ servants. By the time Nines arrived at the detective’s flat this morning, the other man had already sent a message to the servants, informing them that he would come to speak with them at their earliest convenience. Nines barely had the time to greet Tina, Stephanie, and Elva, before the detective dragged him out of the house and into a carriage that would take him to the house Mr. Williams used to live in. Once again, the ride there was rather quiet but this time Nines knew that it was most likely because Gavin was not really himself this early in the morning.  
  
So, after a relatively uneventful drive to the house, the two men stepped out of the carriage to find themselves in one of the poorer parts of town. It was not yet a slum but there was not much missing from it to make it one. The house Mr. Williams owned in his lifetime looked like the home of someone, who used to have money once but lost it all to some terrible stroke of fate. It was one of the bigger houses on the street, but it was poorly maintained. The paint was peeling off most of the walls and some of the windows had wooden boards in front of them. No matter the circumstances, Nines could not imagine that this was a good environment for a young girl to grow up in. But before he could voice any of those thoughts, Gavin had already knocked on the door.

  
When the two men set foot in the house a few moments later, they left the light of the outside world far behind. All lights in the house were dimmed and Nines wondered if that was because the servants were mourning the death of Mr. William and the disappearance of Alice or if the inhabitants of the house had simply run out of gas to power their lights. He and Gavin followed a large, dark-skinned man through a gloomy hallway and into one of the rooms beyond it.

They entered a kitchen and found a young woman sitting in a chair, wringing her hands in her lap and sobbing occasionally. Since she had averted her gaze, the only thing Nines could determine about her without a doubt was that she was blond and - if her wrists were anything to go by - very thin. But that was not uncommon for servants, even in the best of houses. How Mr. Williams had ever managed to pay for the four of them with only his meager income was beyond Nines. But it was not unheard of that servants grew fond of their employers and stayed even after a crisis had happened and their salaries could no longer be paid.

A few paces away, standing near the stove was the other servant. The man had moved over there after he had led Gavin and Nines into the room. It was only now that the doctor became fully aware of just how large the man was. He was several inches taller than Nines himself and almost twice as broad as him. He looked like the polar opposite of the woman and there was a worry in his eyes that made it all too obvious he was only standing where he did because it could be deemed improper if he went to hug the blonde. Over time, Nines had picked up some of Gavin's deductive skills and while he was nowhere near as good at it as the detective, even he could see clear as day that the two servants were more than colleagues or friends.

  
  
“Ms. Kara-”, Gavin began after the three of them had all arranged themselves around the small kitchen table.

“Just Kara, please”, the woman interrupted and dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief. Gavin nodded and tried very hard not to show his annoyance at being interrupted like this.

“Kara”, Gavin began a second time, showing clearly with his voice that he would not be interrupted a second time, “When was the last time you saw your employer?”

“It must have been around eight last night”, Kara answered, still sniffling a little, “He often goes to a pub, you see? Many different pubs, actually. But he frequents the same one on Thursdays for as long as I can remember. If only I could remember the name of that place…”  
  
“The black rooster”, the man in the corner said, lifting his gaze from a kettle on the stove for only a few seconds, then looking at it again as intently as if the thing were going to come to life if he left it out of his sights for too long.  
  
“Yes, that one.”  
  
Kara did not look too happy at being reminded of the name of the establishment her employer frequented – and Nines could hardly blame her. While he had never been inside this particular pub, he had walked past it quite a number of times before. It was an unsightly place down by the docks, where no respectable Londoner would dare set foot. Nines himself had only seen it on the few occasions his work with Gavin had forced him to frequent the general area to find someone or solve a case. If it was anything like the other establishments their line of work sometimes made it necessary to frequent, Nines was not too thrilled by the prospect of visiting this one. Such places were usually incredibly dirty and the patrons looking to pick fights wherever they could find them – and while Nines knew well enough to defend himself, his main concern was the general uncleanliness of places like this.

“Did you notice anything different or out of the ordinary in his behaviour?”, Gavin wanted to know next, his gaze fixed attentively on Kara. Nines was glad to see him finally invested in their case and openly showing it after he had been trying to act indifferent for most of the previous day. And while Nines was, of course, shocked beyond belief by the murder of Mr. Williams, he could not help but feel an immense relief since it was what made the case seem big and interesting enough for his partner.  
  
“He seemed very distraught”, Kara said, “But, of course, he had been like this ever since little Alice went missing.” Several tears rolled down the young woman’s face as she spoke of the girl. “Most of the day he spent either sitting in his armchair and staring at the wall or pacing the house and cursing whoever took his daughter.”  
  
“Did he seem to have any suspicion on who it might have been?”  
  
  
Kara opened her mouth to speak but before she could get a word out, the kettle began to whistle behind them, startling everyone in the room. The man by the stove quickly made to take it off the heat but burned his hand in the process and dropped the kettle again, spilling water.  
  
“I’m sorry I’ll-“  
  
“I will take care of it, Luther”, Kara stated resolutely and rose to her feet. For the next minute or so, she busied herself preparing tea for all of them. Next to him, Nines could feel Gavin become more and more agitated. The other man hated his questioning being interrupted, claimed it might make him lose his train of thought and possibly oversee something vital – but if that had ever happened, Nines had never been there to witness it. Still, he rested a hand calmingly on the other man’s shoulder. Gavin shrugged it off and glared at the table instead.  
  
“Now, about your employer’s suspicions…”, Gavin pressed immediately, as soon as Kara had placed cups of tea in front of them and sat back down in her chair. Luther abandoned his post at the stove and stood behind her, resting his hands gently on her shoulders. She smiled up at him for a moment, then turned back to face Gavin and Nines. Making the tea seemed to have helped her regain her focus.  
  
“I cannot remember Mr. Williams voicing any suspicions”, she told them and sighed, “Sometimes he would bring his drinking companions back here with him, but I would never care to remember their names. He usually only ever brought them over once so there was no need to learn who they were.”  
“Did he bring anyone home recently?”  
  
“There was a man last week.” This time, it was Luther who answered Gavin’s question. “Kara was upstairs looking after Alice; the poor girl had a nightmare. They went to the sitting room and I brought them whiskey. I don’t know what they were talking about but they seemed to get along fine…”  
  
“Do you remember anything about the man?”, Nines asked, his curiosity making him ask quicker than Gavin could.  
  
“He looked an awful lot like Mr. Williams himself”, Luther told him, obviously concentrating very hard to remember the details of something that had happened several days ago, “Around the same height…and built too. Only the man had a beard and Mr. Williams never had one. I thought they were brothers when I walked into that room. But Mr. Williams didn’t introduce the man or anything…so we have no clue who he is.”  
  
“Do you think this man might have anything to do with Alice going missing?”, Kara burst out so suddenly it startled all three men in the room. She looked so desperate and scared, one could have thought someone had stolen her own child, “The men Mr. Williams brought home with him were surely not of the respectable sort…but to think that one of them would take Alice away from us…she must be so scared.”  
  
“At this stage, I cannot say anything about whether this man might or might not have abducted Alice”, Gavin told her, and Kara looked absolutely shattered, “But you have given us an important piece of information that might help us find her.” Kara only looked a fraction more hopeful than before.  
  
“I am sorry if I am not much of a help to you”, she sighed, rubbing at her eyes, “Mr. Williams always told Luther and me to stay out of his affairs so we cannot say more about the man who visited him last. Or any other men, really.”  
  
“Not to worry, Kara”, Gavin said, his voice much softer than it usually was, “You have given us a description of him and the name of a pub Mr. Williams most likely met him at. I am sure I will be able to figure things out on my own from there.”  
  
Those words actually brought a small, hopeful smile to Kara’s face and Nines, too, felt lighter than just seconds before. It was not often that Gavin treated witnesses or dependants of clients this gently. That was not to say he was cruel to them but usually Gavin would try to get to the bottom of things quickly and that, in turn, would sometimes lead to him being perceived as rude by those he questioned. Nines thought, not for the first time, that he much preferred this softer side of Gavin.  


  
Once they were sure they had gotten all the information from Kara and Luther they could, Gavin and Nines made their way through the streets of the quarter and towards the pub Kara had said Mr. Williams used to frequent most. As Nines looked around a bit, he was reminded once again of the vast amounts of poverty-stricken areas in the city. The brunet himself did not live in the most pompous region, even though he could certainly afford something better than the very modest lodging he currently lived in. But even if Nines’ home was more on the modest side, it was a palace compared to the huts people lived in, in this part of the city. It was beyond Nines, in moments like these, how a city that prided itself with its modernity and riches could let so many of its citizens live in such squalor.  
  
The pub Gavin and Nines arrived at just a few minutes later fit perfectly into the depressing scenery. The paint was peeling off the walls and the entire house looked like it might collapse if too stiff a breeze blew over it. If it was not for a case, Nines would have never voluntarily set foot in an establishment like this. But as it was, he followed Gavin inside, where it was dark and the air was thick with smoke and other scents Nines did not like to think about.  
  
While Gavin turned towards the barkeeper to ask about Mr. Williams and any men he might have sat and drunk with or talked to, Nines looked around the mostly empty room. The pub was as dirty and run-down as he had feared and so were the few patrons that were in at this time of day. They seemed to be keeping to themselves, occupying mostly corner tables and those spots that were furthest from the few windows that were so thickly covered in grime that they barely let any light in either way. Even though he knew that he was nowhere near as brilliant as Gavin in the art of deduction, Nines chose to let the detective ask the barman the right question while he attempted to learn anything valuable about the men in the room with them.  
  
Thankfully, their clothing was very telling. It was the type of sturdy attire the men, who worked down by the docks often wore, the kind that was made to withstand hard labour and unkind weather of all sorts. If the state these men’s clothes were in was anything to go by, they must be doing their work for a long time now as the fabric was wearing thin or tearing in several places. Nines went to check his pocket watch to see what time it was and possibly determine what time the men around had been working at. But when he caught the gaze of one of the patrons, the brunet was quickly reminded of where he was and that he and Gavin were already drawing unwanted attention to themselves with their clothing alone and he decided not to retrieve his watch from his pocket. Men like him were almost sure to be robbed in places like these and Nines did not want to give anyone a reason to attempt such a thing on him.  
  
Instead, he chose to simply guess the approximate time. He and Gavin had left the house at half-past eight this morning and arrived at Mr. Williams’ house at around nine. Just before they left, a clock somewhere in the house had chimed, announcing that it was ten o’clock. It had taken them approximately ten minutes to walk to the pub so that it must be around a quarter past ten now. If those men were here now, surely, they did not work during the day. Nines suspected they guarded their workplaces during the night and were now here to get a drink and possibly something to eat before they returned home to sleep. And if this was the case, their work schedule was directly opposed to that of Mr. Williams and his drinking companion. The chances that one of the men around here knew either of them were slim.  
  
“Hey, Nines!”  
  
The brunet blinked, torn from his thoughts by Gavin’s voice next to him. The detective looked at him with an amused smile on his face, as if he had looked right into Nines’ head and seen what the other was thinking. It was far from the first time he looked like this and despite all the time they had spent together this past year, Nines was still not sure whether to be impressed or feel deeply uncomfortable. He raised his brows in question to deflect from his own insecurity and, thankfully, Gavin did not comment on it, though it was obvious he felt it.  
  
“We are looking for a man by the name of Zlatko”, he told Nines, then swiftly walked past him and towards the door. The brunet followed, rolling his eyes in annoyance. It was by no means uncommon that Gavin would throw him a crumb of information only to keep the rest from him and take his sweet time to inform Nines of what he had found out. But since this time, it offered the chance to finally escape this uncomfortable pub, Nines was quick to follow.  
  
“Now, what did you find out?”, Gavin wanted to know once they were outdoors. He had stopped just outside the door to retrieve a packet of cigarettes and a match from his coat pocket and was now looking at Nines expectantly. It was beyond Nines, why the detective would have a perfectly good pipe at home but would still smoke cigarettes in public for everyone to see and judge him for it. The brunet just barely stopped himself from chastising the detective for his unhealthy habit. He was just about to but then he reminded himself that they had had this discussion a great many times and that it had never changed Gavin’s view. Every single time, the detective would claim that the sole reason he smoked was to complete his collection of cigarette cards, even though both men knew that this was merely an excuse. So, Nines chose to swallow his annoyance and instead see to it that they could make progress with their case.  
  
“I do not think the men in this pub will be able to help us”, he said, remembering what he had discovered about the patrons of the establishment, “They were obviously dockworkers going by their clothes and since the pub is so close to the docks it can be assumed that this Zlatko worked there too. But if Mr. Williams met him at the pub in the evening, he most likely works at the docks during the day. Those men we saw just now work during the night so they would not have met either Zlatko or Mr. Williams.”  
  
“Impressive. You are learning quite a lot from me, it seems”, Gavin noted with a smile on his face, then took a drag of his cigarette, “Your deductions were correct about two of five people.”  
  
“What about the other three?”  
  
“You let yourself be fooled by their clothing”, Gavin informed Nines readily, “The two big, tan men in the corner? Those were the ones who do work at the docks. They are big and strong, their arms fill the entire sleeves of their coats because of all the muscle they gained from the hard, physical labour. Those two looked tired. I assume they have only changed from working during the days to working at night, their skin was tan from working outside in the sun during summer. The other three were most likely a group of petty thieves. They were scrawny at best. No man looks like this after even a month of working at the docks. The clothes were most likely stolen or borrowed from someone. I assume they wear them to fit in better at the fish market that takes place every Friday morning just a few streets from here. People have been warned time and again to look for people with a certain type of clothing, as they are oftentimes thieves. But no one suspects dock workers yet, so it should be easy for those three to fit in and steal from unsuspecting citizens.”  
  
Nines opened and closed his mouth several times, but no sound came out. He was not even sure what he could or should say. At this point, he had truly thought he had gotten good at deductions – but apparently, he still had much to learn. He nodded stiffly, unhappy because his deductions had been so wrong but glad that Gavin had found something and was surely devising a plan on how to find Zlatko already.  
  
“You will get there. You just have to stop relying on the things you see because those are always the things people want you to see. It’s the things that they refuse to show you that are the most interesting.”  
  
“I will do my best to keep that in mind”, Nines muttered, only held back from more vocal complaints by the knowledge that it would not help their case in the slightest, “What do you suggest we do now?”  
  
Gavin did not answer but instead took one last drag from his cigarette before tossing what was left of it carelessly onto the ground next to him. Then, he gestured towards Nines, indicating that the brunet should follow him, and took off. Nines had not even enough time to scold him for his scandalous behaviour. Instead, he hurried along after Gavin, following him through narrow, winding streets and dark alleyways. Ever since he had gained a substantial amount of attention through his work, Gavin had developed the unfortunate habit of avoiding the main streets. It was not too uncomfortable most times but some days, like today, Nines felt like all eyes were on them and it was only a matter of time until they were robbed or possibly worse. The brunet kept such thoughts to himself, however, lest he wanted Gavin to remind him for the hundredth time that he had been in the war and would surely be capable of defending the both of them with ease.

  
  
Nines followed Gavin quietly like he often tended to do until one of the narrow streets they had been walking down for quite some time spat them back out onto one of the larger streets in London and they found themselves across the street from one of the large warehouses by the docks.  
  
“And what should I do now?”, Nines wanted to know, even though he already had a very distinct feeling about what Gavin would ask him to do.  
  
“You, my dear Doctor, will talk to this man over there”, Gavin answered and pointed at a man standing far away from the other workers, “And you will attempt to find out as much about Zlatko as you possibly can. He is the type of man around here, who makes more money handing out information about unsuspecting coworkers than working his actual job.”  
  
“And you trust me to bring you the desired results after I just disappointed you so sorely at the pub?” Nines could not keep the bitterness out of his voice entirely but he managed to quiet it down until there was only a hint of it left. Especially, because he had no idea how Gavin had even found the right man at just a glance. And, of course, someone like Gavin was sure to pick up on his annoyance easily.  
  
“I trust you completely, Nines”, he said, not keeping the teasing note out of his voice in the slightest, “If nothing else, it will make a fine learning experience for you.”  
  
“Should you not be doing this yourself, Reed? Is this not far too important to leave it as a way for me to learn?”, Nines wondered. He had a mounting suspicion that there was a reason for Gavin’s sending him to do it and if that suspicion was correct, he was almost certain he would not like the detective’s plan.  
  
“I have other things to tend to”, Gavin answered easily and that was just what Nines had expected him to say, “As you well know, my brother is a forensic examiner. I sent word to him last night that Mr. Williams was my most recent case and asked him to find out whatever he could about the circumstances of the man’s death. And since it is almost time for my brother’s far too early lunch, I figured I ought to pay him a visit.”  
  
And there Nines had the reason why Gavin entrusted him with the task of questioning the man at the docks. The detective did it because he was going to visit his brother either way and could be certain that, if Nines should fail, he would still receive enough information to be able to deduce the rest of it, if need be. It was moments like these when Nines felt more like a glorified errand boy than an actual partner to the detective and he loathed those moments with a passion. The only part of it that managed to bring Nines some modicum of glee was the knowledge that Gavin and his brother were not particularly fond of each other and that the detective would not have much fun in being around the other man.  
  
“I see”, Nines stated, doing his best to hide his anger this time, “I assume we both best get going, then.” Next to him, Gavin heaved a sigh, then nodded. It filled the brunet with pettiness that was usually foreign to him but far too enjoyable at the moment.  
  
“It should not take longer than an hour at most”, Gavin told him and squared his shoulders, “We will surely meet at the house around lunch.” Nines barely had enough time to nod in confirmation, before the other man had taken off and blended into his surroundings within seconds. It was a talent Nines truly envied in him. Gavin could easily fit into any place or any situation he pleased without much of an effort. Nines himself, on the other hand, stuck out in most places – no matter if he used a disguise or not. It was truly frustrating at times but since it could not be helped, either way, Nines chose not to dwell on it and instead headed towards the man Gavin had pointed out to him minutes earlier.  
  
  
The worker in question wore similar clothes to the men Nines had seen in the pub earlier and he wondered briefly, if he truly worked at the docks or whether he was a spy or thief instead. The man was slimmer than many of the others Nines could see moving around the warehouse carrying crates or heavy tools, but his upper arms appeared to fill the sleeves of his jacket quite well so he might as well have been an actual dock worker.  
Whatever the case was, the man currently stood a small ways away from the hustle and bustle of the men carrying crates and boxes in and out of the warehouse when Nines approached him.   
  
“I was told you were a man who knows things”, Nines said as he stood in front of the blond. Working with Gavin, he had learned early on that there was no use lingering over formalities or introductions. In almost all cases it was better to lead with what one wanted of the other person so an agreement could be reached quicker and with less risk for either party involved.  
  
“Aye, I know a thing here and there”, the blond answered easily. He looked Nines up and down with a frown that quickly turned into a grin that forebode no good. “I’ll gladly share any information I have with you – for a price, that is.”  
  
By this point, Nines had worked with Gavin for far too long to be upset or even surprised by a demand like this. In fact, the brunet had taken to carrying a special purse full of coins for occasions like this one. It was enough to satisfy most men asking for payment for their shady services but not enough that Nines would be bothered by the loss. Carefully, so no one else would see, the brunet retrieved the small pouch from the inside pocket of his coat and held it up for the other man to see. He even moved it about a little so the blond could hear the clinking of coins inside. As expected, the man’s eyes lit up and he seemed suddenly far more eager to answer Nines’ questions.

“What you need to know?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the pouch in Nines’ hand.  
  
“I need information on a man”, Nines answered, impressed but not surprised by the fact how much difference money made sometimes. It truly made his work that much easier on some occasions. “He works at the docks but I cannot say for who.”  
  
“Oh, someone steal your missus?”, the man wondered, a gleeful smile on his face as he felt like he had solved a case of his own, “Or looking to get rid of the mistress’s sweetheart?”  
  
“What I want with him is none of your business.” Nines was disgusted by even the insinuation but, then again, he figured, maybe those were the things other men came to the blond for. The brunet himself had never spared much of a thought on wives or mistresses. Why that was, however, was not something he liked to think about out in the open like this and in the middle of the day  
  
“The man’s name is Zlatko”, he added eventually, hoping to get this conversation over with quickly. The blond looked thoughtful for a moment or two and for a brief second, Nines worried that he might not even know who he was talking about. But then an expression of recognition overtook the man’s face.  
  
“Hefty bloke, a wee bit smaller than you, has a beard. That him?”  
  
Nines listened closely as the man described Zlatko and suddenly, for the first time, it occurred to him that he did not know what the man in question looked like. All he had to go by were the descriptions given by Kara and Luther. Frantically, the brunet tried to recall what the two servants had said to Gavin and him earlier in the day. Luther had mentioned Zlatko looking rather similar to the late Mr. Todd and the description the blond man in front of Nines had just given sounded not too far off from that. He had even mentioned the beard Luther had talked about in his description, too. And so, even though he could not be entirely sure the blond was talking about the right person, Nines nodded.  
  
“And what’s your business with him?”, the blond wanted to know, becoming entirely too noisy for Nines’ liking.  
  
“I pay you for the information, not to get involved in my affairs”, he hissed, pulling a face he knew had the effect of intimidating almost anyone he talked to. The only people it had never worked on since he met them were Gavin and Tina. Luckily, it had the desired effect on the blond man, who raised his hands defensively.  
  
“Easy, fella”, he muttered and looked around awkwardly for a moment, “Listen, I don’t know much about him. He’s a bit of a weird guy, keeps to himself most of the time. He just showed up here a while back, started working but hardly ever talks to any of the other guys. A lot of them think he’s real strange. He goes to the pub with some of them some nights but never sits with them. Some of the guys tell me he sits with some real shady people or whoever is alone at a table and talks to them all night sometimes. No one knows why.”  
  
Nines nodded along as the man spoke. That sounded about like what he would expect from someone who sought out the company of Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams had not seemed like the most pleasant character to be around, either. It was no wonder, then, that he should attract the company of someone like Zlatko. Now more than ever, Nines would love to know what those two men had been talking about on the night before Alice’s disappearance and on the one right before Mr. Williams had been found dead. It irked the brunet that he might never know but for now, he knew he had to focus on the task at hand.

“Do you happen to know what pubs he frequents with the other workers?”, Nines demanded. He could see that the man in front of him was becoming antsier and antsier. The blond kept looking around as if he expected to see someone, who had ill intentions towards him any minute now.  
  
“Usually you can find them at any of the shady pubs that are no more than a ten minutes’ walk from here”, the man answered, “You’ll know them when you see them. Black sheep and the like. I really can’t say where Zlatko spent most of his time, but I know many men like to go to the Old Mole. If you’re looking for him, I’d try there first.”  
  
Nines was just about to thank the man when a large man with dark hair rounded the corner and fear snuck into the blond man’s eyes. The brunet was in no mood to get involved in the dockworkers' quarrels and since he had the information he had come here for, he decided not to linger. Instead, he handed the blond the contents of his pouch and made a quick retreat before he could become part of something he did not wish to become part of.  
  
  
By the time Nines returned to Gavin’s flat, he was already being eagerly awaited. Apparently, the only information Gavin’s talk with his brother had brought the detective was the knowledge that Mr. Williams had been strangled to death and that it had most likely been done with a string or some type of wire. And while, of course, that was valuable information, it did not get them any closer to any potential suspect – except maybe for the assumption that the attacker must have been about as strong as Mr. Williams himself to be able to successfully subdue and strangle him.  
  
The lack of valuable information acquired from Gavin’s brother meant, however, that the progress of their case now rested mostly on what Nines had learned at the docks. And while he had been angry earlier, feeling like Gavin only used him to get the information he had already figured out himself long ago, the doctor was now nervous. He had done his best, of course, but that did not mean he had asked all the right questions for them to be able to investigate Zlatko further. But the more Nines told Gavin about his short conversation with the man at the docks, the more the detective’s face lit up.  
  
“Excellent work, Nines”, he praised the brunet and jumped out of the armchair he usually hogged, no matter if there were guests present or not. All of a sudden, he seemed outright excited by the progression of their case and Nines had to say he was glad to see it.  
  
“What happens now?”, he asked, even though he had a very good idea of what the next step would be.  
  
“Well, it seems, my good Doctor, we are going to spend a night at the pub.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems we have a suspect and a plan. I wonder what will happen next...  
> Please don't forget to give lots of love to @jxse_the_bean over on twitter for all the amazing art in this fic! I cannot tell you how in love I am witht his smoking card!
> 
> Next update will be on the 11th! Hope you're all having a good time until then!


	3. A chase in the night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I say that Josebean and I are EXCITED to bring you this chapter and art this is an understatement of insane proportions. Please give some extra love to Josebean today (accounts have been linked in previous chapters) because this is such a brilliant piece of art and I can only scream whenever I see it!
> 
> Now without further ado...see you on the other side!

Nines looked at himself in the mirror and was not entirely sure that he liked what he saw.  
  
Since the pub they would visit later was in one of the poorer parts of the city, Gavin and Nines had decided they needed disguises to fit in with the people, who usually frequented the establishment. Now, neither of them cared much about what they wore on a daily basis. Nines simply liked being dressed well and Gavin’s wardrobe consisted mainly of what Tina brought for him when all he had at his disposal was getting threadbare and unwearable. Still, their usual clothing would make them stick out at a pub like this which was the opposite of what they wanted to happen, as their goal was to blend in and observe the man named Zlatko.  
  
Therefore, Nines was now wearing a simple pair of pants in the worst shade of brown he had ever seen in this world and an equally simple grey shirt. A jacket in a different but equally unflattering shade of brown that Tina had found in the depths of her closet somewhere completed the outfit. And while Nines would usually deny possessing even a shred of vanity, he felt incredibly undesirable and even ridiculous in his get up. The only thing keeping him from taking it off again and finding something else to wear was the knowledge that it might help them catch a kidnapper and reunite a girl with the people she had known her whole life.  
  
Nevertheless, the brunet could not help but feel somewhat ridiculous in the clothes he was wearing. Gavin, who was wearing a similar outfit but with mostly black clothing, where Nines’ was muddy brown, was at least lucky enough to have found something that fit him properly. Nines felt like the detective did not look too bad in what he was currently wearing while the brunet himself felt like he looked like a type of clown in the pants and shirt that were far too wide for him. The only thing that might make him actually fit in better was the scar on his face but even in that department, Nines felt like Gavin’s looked far more common in a pub than his. But there was no way it could be helped now and it was only going to be for one evening. Nines looked at his reflection one last time, then sighed and turned to Gavin.  
  
“Ready to leave?”, the detective asked with a grin on his face. Nines nodded, resigned to his fate, and decided to simply be happy that his partner seemed to have regained his excitement and good spirits during their investigation.

  
They entered the pub an hour later and Nines instantly felt just as uncomfortable as he had in the other establishment they had been in this morning. At least in the previous one, he and Gavin had been mostly alone with the barkeeper and only a few patrons. But, as had to be expected, this pub quickly filled as more and more dock workers finished their shifts and sought to get some enjoyment before they returned home to sleep or have dinner with their families. The air indoors was hot and humid and so thick, Nines had half a mind to attempt and cut it with a knife. The stench of sweat hung heavily in the air and mixed with those of alcohol and tobacco until the brunet could hardly breathe anymore.   
  
Gavin, in the meantime, seemed to have no trouble mingling with the crowd of workers. Before Nines could even attempt to find a seat at the bar, the detective had already managed to join a game of cards that was being played at a table in the corner. It was how observational nights out usually went for the two men. Nines would go and find himself a place from where he could observe the whole room while Gavin became part of the crowd to gather more information and keep a look at their surroundings like this. More often than not, their seats would be quite close so Gavin and Nines would be able to exchange looks and communicate throughout the night but there was no such luck to be had today.

  
Nines found himself as far away from Gavin as the room would allow and while it did not bother him per se, he feared it would complicate their night. After all, neither of them knew what Zlatko really looked like so there would be a good bit of guesswork involved as it was and, as most things were, this would be rather difficult to do if they were separated like this.  
But since there was no way to change that, the brunet decided to make the best of the night and ordered a single dark ale.

Time passed far too slowly for Nines’ taste as the minutes ticked by and he sat there with his drink. The ale had not been particularly cold, to begin with, but the longer he sat in his seat, taking only small sips from his glass, the warmer and more unpalatable the drink became. The brunet could not tell how much time had passed already – he did not dare pull his watch from his pocket, as it would have immediately given him away – but he had not seen Zlatko yet and was becoming decidedly more bored by the minute. Every time a man that vaguely fit the description Luther and the blond man from the docks had given him, Nines lifted his head and looked over to where Gavin was still playing cards. Most times, he could see the detective quickly lift his head from his hand of cards and then immediately look back down. Every time that happened, the excitement Nines had felt just a moment before ebbed away and he felt disappointment wash over him.

Meanwhile, the longer the night went on, Nines felt like he had to keep an eye on Gavin too. At first, his thoughts were too occupied with whoever happened to enter the pub at any given moment but then he began to pay attention to how often one of the barmaids made her way over to the table Gavin was sitting at to bring more glasses of ale and other, stronger, drinks to the group of men sitting there. After he had watched her bring the third round of drinks that suspiciously looked like whiskey to this particular table in what felt like barely fifteen minutes' time, he began growing suspicious. And surely enough Gavin was not the only one drinking but he sure did not abstain from the liquor either.  
  
It was far from the first time this happened and while Nines knew that Gavin was not so easily brought down by alcohol, he wished his partner were a little less careless in moments like these. There was a case to solve, after all, and Nines would much prefer his partner to be at his full mental capacity for that. But as far away from him as he was, there was, unfortunately, no way for Nines to intervene that would not have drawn far too much attention to him.  
  
Then, Nines had managed to empty his glass most of the way and at last, a man entered the pub. He fit the descriptions given by Luther and their informant far better than the other men, who had entered the pub tonight had. For a brief, shocking second, Nines had even thought it was Mr. Williams himself entering the room. As inconspicuous as he possibly could, Nines lifted his head and looked over to where Gavin was still sitting, playing cards. The detective had looked up too and this time, his head did not immediately sink back down to focus on the game in front of him. Instead, his eyes followed Zlatko as he ordered a drink at the bar and eventually withdrew to a corner booth that had only two measly creatures sitting at the table yet. He got talking to them fairly quickly and that, too, fit what Nines had learned about the man earlier in the day.

  
So, as time went on, Nines kept his gaze firmly on the man in the corner. Nothing much happened but his heart would not stop beating hard either way. And even though he could not say for sure, the brunet had a distinct feeling that Gavin was keeping a keen eye on their suspect too.  
  
When Zlatko eventually left his spot and headed back to the door of the pub, Gavin did not seem to notice, though. Usually, he and Nines would leave their seats one by one to follow their suspect out the door quickly. But when Zlatko had left and more than ten seconds had passed without a sign from Gavin that he was about to leave his spot, Nines was beginning to get anxious. Across the room, he tried to catch the detective’s eye and when he finally did, he suddenly had a very good idea why Gavin had not left the room yet. He looked so drunk, Nines was not sure the man would be able to stand on his own feet, let alone walk fast enough to follow someone through the unevenly paved roads of London.  
  
But they had no time left to lose, so Nines quickly rose to his feet, left a coin on the countertop to recompense the barkeeper for the drink and the space he had occupied at the bar, and crossed the room.

“I do think you have played quite enough”, he told Gavin as soon as he reached him. The brunet tried to keep his voice low but the other men at the table were far too rowdy for Gavin to understand him if Nines spoke any quieter.  
  
“But ‘m winning”, Gavin complained, pouting almost like a scolded child would and gestured to the cards in his hand. It was indeed not a bad hand, Nines had to admit, but they could not pay any mind to that right now. They had more important matters to tend to.  
  
“You might be winning this game but you are losing the other one”, Nines said, emphasizing the words in a way he knew would make Gavin understand the situation at hand. And, as expected, Gavin quickly lifted his head, looked at the place Zlatko had been sitting at earlier, then cursed.  
  
“I had a swell time, lads, but I must leave”, he announced to the men playing cards with him. Two of them were currently arguing and therefore the rest of the table seemed not to have noticed Nines’ presence yet. “You can keep my profits and pay my tab with it.”  
  
This being said, the detective was on his feet and stumbling towards the door. Nines rolled his eyes but followed as quickly as he could.

  
  
Once they had made it outside, the cold night air hit them in the face like a slap. As far as he was concerned, Nines was not too happy with the sudden change of temperature but he did hope that the cold would knock the drunken stupor out of Gavin so the detective would focus on their case again – if it was not too late yet, that was. Nines let his gaze roam the street but could not see Zlatko at first glance.  
“This way”, Gavin said briskly and took off in one direction. Nines did not know how he had deduced that Zlatko must have gone that way but he assumed they had already lost more time than they had and therefore did not argue with Gavin. The brunet followed the detective and watched him stumble and slip on the uneven pavement. The fact that they were moving towards their destination at an adequate pace was a miracle in and of itself only surpassed by the fact that Gavin had not yet fallen over and landed right on his face.  
  
As they continued making their way down the street, Nines slowly began to realize why Gavin had chosen this direction. In the dim light of a faraway streetlamp stood two men. One, tall and broad, and the other small and scrawny. From the distance, Nines could not tell if the taller man was truly Zlatko, but it was the only hint they had, and the times Gavin was wrong about something were few and far between.  
  
They approached the two men and the closer they got, the more Gavin slowed down in front of him. At one point, Nines left his position of walking along behind him and instead walked next to him now. Even through the cold night air, he could smell the alcohol on Gavin’s breath and he was not looking forward to the mood the detective would be in, come morning.  
  
“What shall we do when we get a chance to follow him?”, Nines whispered eventually. There was not much of a distance left between the detective and his partner walking down the street and the two men standing in the lamplight.  
  
“Follow him, of course”, Gavin answered, irritation audible in his voice.  
  
“Obviously”, Nines deadpanned and barely resisted to roll his eyes at the detective, “I was wondering more about how we would make him not realize he is being followed instead of the act of following him itself.”  
  
“I will think of something when it comes to it.” Came Gavin’s gruff answer and it reminded Nines rather quickly of how drunk the other man truly was. Usually, Gavin was already several steps ahead of the action at any given moment, whether he wanted to be or not. It was just what Nines assumed his head worked like. But in moments like these, when the detective was severely intoxicated, even someone of his caliber seemed to have trouble making plans.  


  
So Nines did his best to look around inconspicuously as they walked closer and closer towards Zlatko and the other man. There were many small streets that led away from the main street to each side but Nines feared they could only escape to one of those and then return to the street so many times before their suspect would notice and make a run for it. A good bit down the road Nines saw some crates being stacked up that he and Gavin could use to hide behind but since there was no way to say what route Zlatko would be using, they would not be able to count on that either.  
The closer they moved to their target, the more nervous Nines became while Gavin seemed to be perfectly calm by his side.  
  
Then, as if fate wanted to show them that it was finally on their side for once, Zlatko and the man shook hands and exchanged something that Nines could not quite make out in the darkness of the night and parted ways. While Zlatko’s friend quickly disappeared in one of the side streets, Zlatko himself continued his way down the main street, where Gavin and Nines could easily follow him. By now, the brunet’s heart was beating hard against his ribcage. They were closer to their target than they had ever been and even though he did not know what would happen once Zlatko reached his destination with the two men in tow, Nines felt like they were incredibly close to solving their case.  
  
The two men somehow managed to follow Zlatko without arousing his suspicion for a while. Nines suspected that it was mostly due to Gavin stumbling left and right and him having to keep him upright and on track, calling out things like “watch out” and “don’t fall” all the while. It gave them the appearance of two friends trying to get home, although one of them had gotten terribly drunk. Whether it was a planned act put on by the detective or not Nines could not tell, but he had a distinct feeling that Gavin had really just had one too many drinks back at the pub. Whatever the truth was, Nines would not complain – for now at least – as long as it helped with their investigation.  
  
Gavin seemed to think differently, however. He was growing more and more agitated next to Nines.  
  
“No way he is going to his place”, he muttered after a while, barely understandable with how quietly he spoke and how slurred his words were from the alcohol, “He is leading us elsewhere on purpose, I am sure of it.” Nines had not gotten that same impression but he was willing to trust the detective’s gut instinct. And he did notice Zlatko looking over his shoulder several times so maybe Gavin was right and the man was suspecting something.  
  
“What do you think we should do?”, Nines wondered.  
  
“I have a plan. Just trust me.”  
  
That was all Gavin said on that matter and while it left Nines with an uneasy feeling in his stomach as he was not sure how well put-together the detective was at the moment, he decided to do as Gavin said. There were not a great many alternatives as it was and to this day, the other man had never betrayed Nines’ trust. So, the brunet kept on walking by Gavin’s side, wondering what the other had in mind as a distraction while keeping a watchful eye on Zlatko’s back so the man would not get away from them.

  
  
Finally, just a minute or two later, they were about to step into the light of a streetlamp that illuminated the area. Just before they did, Gavin cleared his throat very loudly and clearly, alerting everyone nearby to his presence. Granted, at the moment that was only Zlatko but if this maneuver was supposed to make the man think that no one was following him, Nines did not understand it in the slightest. He was just about to ask Gavin what on earth he thought he was doing when the smaller man spun him around so they were right underneath the streetlamp and could be seen easily. Not allowing for any sort of reaction from Nines, Gavin grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and pulled him forward into a kiss.

  


  
Even though it was medically impossible, Nines was convinced that his heart stopped for several long moments before getting back to its work at twice its usual speed. And even then it felt like everything happened in a world beyond Nines’ control. His mind was not picking up on what was happening right now or registering any of the countless thoughts and emotions that raced through the brunet’s head at this very moment. The only thought that really made it through to him was how Gavin was surely on the tips of his toes right now to be able to reach Nines’ lips and for a moment or two, the thought seemed absolutely hysterical.  
  
  
But then, everything suddenly came back into sharp focus. Nines remembered why they were out here in the streets in the first place. His eyes flew open – the brunet ignored the fact that he could not remember closing them in the first place – and he tried to get a good look at Zlatko. The man still stood some distance away from them but by now, he had turned to look at them. So, that had been why Gavin had cleared his throat, Nines figured. But why exactly seeing them kiss would make Zlatko believe they were not following him, the doctor did not really understand. But whatever the reason was, he had a distinct feeling he had just botched their whole operation either way. His gaze met Zlatko’s and the man turned on his heel and ran.  
Without thinking much of it, Nines wedged his hands between his own body and Gavin’s and gave the detective’s chest a decisive shove. The man stumbled a few steps back effectively ending the kiss before losing his footing and landing on his back.  
  
“He’s getting away”, Nines told him urgently and held his hand out to help Gavin back onto his feet so they could pursue their suspect together.  
  
“Then why are you still standing here?!”, Gavin barked and slapped Nines’ hand away. The brunet wanted to argue but that would only cost them precious moments and, with his thoughts slowly calming back down, Nines figured that in his current state Gavin would be unable to follow at the necessary speed anyway. So he called out a quick “Stay here!”, turned around, and took off.  
  
And for the first several moments it looked like Nines could actually catch up to Zlatko – even though he had no idea what he would do once he had caught the man. He was not a constable or had any right to hold their suspect down or force him to lead them to where Alice was. But there was no time to care about such things now. Zlatko was quickly widening the distance between Nines and him. For a man of his size and build, he was surprisingly agile, the brunet found. A moment later, Zlatko turned and left the main road to disappear into one of the many side roads. Nines followed him but when he rounded the same corner, Zlatko was nowhere to be seen.  
  
Frantically, Nines rounded another corner, turned back, and went the other way. He found Zlatko in neither street and turned down another yet again. For several minutes, Nines was simply running up and down a maze of narrow alleyways until his head was spinning and he did not know where he was anymore. He had not seen a single person and, most importantly, not their suspect in minutes, and slowly but surely the realization that Nines had lost him dawned on him. The brunet stopped and took some deep breaths to calm himself down and to get some air into his burning lungs. Then, he looked around one last time and finally turned to make his way back to where Gavin was hopefully waiting for him. All the while, Nines kept his guard up, looking around and paying close attention to any sounds in case Zlatko had simply hidden somewhere and was going to come out as soon as Nines had walked past him. But it seemed like the man had vanished into thin air. By the time he stepped back onto the main street, Nines felt discouraged and upset.  
  
  
Gavin was waiting for him at the corner where Zlatko had vanished. There was a somewhat hopeful expression on his face that vanished as soon as he saw Nines return alone. He did not look disappointed, though, and somehow that made Nines feel a little less awful about himself.  
  
“He was gone. He went around the corner and I could not find him for the life of me”, he told Gavin and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. The detective only nodded and fished his packet of cigarettes out of his coat pocket.  
  
“You want one?”, he asked but Nines declined. His lungs still felt raw and painful from running after someone for so long and he had no desire to fill them with cigarette smoke at this state. Instead, he watched Gavin light his cigarette and sigh deeply as he looked up into the night sky above them.   
  
Nines was just about to ask what they should do now that they had lost Zlatko when something else fought itself to the forefront of his mind: Gavin had kissed him.  
  
Even though it had happened mere minutes ago, it felt like a distant memory already and Nines had to wade through a thick fog of confusion and worry to get to it. But then he remembered it and he remembered all of it. Even the things he had been too confused to realize as the kiss was happening – like the softness of Gavin’s lips or the taste of whiskey on them. The phantom sensation of the other man’s stubble grazing Nines’ skin made the brunet break out into goosebumps and his heart that had just barely managed to calm down immediately picked up its pace again. There was such a turmoil of emotions and thoughts in his head once more, Nines could barely look at Gavin without feeling like he wanted to jump out of his skin.  
And yet, when Nines wanted to say something, speak to the other man and clear up the situation, he could not find the right words for the life of him. He struggled silently for several moments until he finally managed to open his mouth.  
  
  
“Why did you do it?”, was what came out and Nines felt like taking it back immediately. It was too vague for him to not have to explain what exactly he meant by this and he was not sure if he could do that.  
  
“Why did I do what exactly?”, Gavin asked, blowing smoke into the cold air between them and looking genuinely confused.  
  
“To confuse Zlatko, you…”, Nines began but the words would not come. Whether he did not want to or simply could not say them was beyond him, but he struggled for a good bit until he finally forced his mouth to cooperate. “You kissed me.”  
  
Gavin looked at him like he had not been there and Nines was feeding him an entirely new piece of information. He silently took another drag from his cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke up into the sky.  
“Oh. I guess I did do that.”  
  
And apparently, that was all the detective had to say on the matter. Nines, however, was not satisfied with that in the slightest. He could not say why exactly, but he simply needed to know why Gavin had thought to kiss him without warning. Of course, there was a part of Nines that the brunet knew all too well that had its own reasons for wanting to find out the true motivation behind the kiss. But Nines did not want this side to surface right now, not out in the open, and when he could not be sure if the kiss had merely been an accident or a distraction. At the same time, Nines had no idea how to even begin putting into words what he truly wanted to know.  
  
“But why did you do it?”, was what he settled on eventually. It might not clear things up any more than any question before had but Nines felt like he needed to know. He only wished his mouth would cooperate a little better and let him ask proper questions instead of stammering through the conversation like he currently felt he did.  
  
“Was it not obvious?”, Gavin wondered, raising a brow, “I wanted Zlatko to think we were merely a couple of drunk lovers. Not a detective and his partner sent to follow him and possibly get him locked up.”  
  
“Why would we be a couple so openly, though?” Nines was getting truly agitated now, looking around to make sure no one was listening in on them. “Two men cannot be seen kissing. It is dangerous.”  
  
“There was no one around, I made sure of it”, Gavin said, flicking the end of his cigarette to the ground, “Do you really think I would get you in trouble like this?”  
  
“I have no idea”, Nines admitted, letting out a frustrated huff, “Even if you looked around, someone could still have seen us. It was far too dangerous. Surely, we could have come up with a different kind of distraction.”  
  
Nines felt like he was talking himself more and more into a corner. All he had wanted to know to begin with was why Gavin would do a thing that was sure to confuse Nines beyond belief. But now he felt like he was not really in control of himself and could only stand by and listen as he kept arguing with Gavin over something that was not supposed to have been this important. In front of him, the detective seemed to be getting upset with Nines’ behaviour as well.  
  
“As you can tell, I am very drunk, and I had to come up with a distraction at the drop of a hat. I am very sorry I did not think of something more elaborate”, he hissed, then added, “No need to be so worried. It is not going to happen again either way.”  
  
Those last words woke an emotion in Nines that he could not quite comprehend. It did not quite hurt but it was deeply unpleasant and the more he lingered on it, the more it clawed its way through his ribcage and straight into his heart. But before he could allow it to settle there, Nines abruptly interrupted this particular train of thought and shook his head.  
“Very well”, Nines grit out between clenched teeth. The fight had left him all at once and he was suddenly bone-deep tired. “We should get you home, Reed.”  
  
  
Thankfully, Gavin went without complaint. It was a long and quiet walk back to his flat with no carriages anywhere in sight at this hour and in a quarter such as this. Nines did not usually mind walking somewhere as it gave him time to think if there was no one around to talk with while he walked. But right now, thinking was the last thing he wanted to do. His thoughts would only lead back to the fact that Gavin had kissed him and that he had felt some strange emotion when the detective had told him it would never happen again. Deep down, he knew it was something that would have to be addressed at some point, but he doubted that the right moment was while the man in question was walking right next to him and Nines had to constantly pay attention so he did not slip and fall on the uneven cobblestone streets.  
  
Nines could not say how much time had passed when they finally made it to the house Gavin lived in. Trying not to make too much noise and end up waking Tina and Stephanie, the brunet carefully guided Gavin up the stairs to his flat. But once they were inside, the detective seemingly decided that he had been helped enough for one night and freed himself from Nines’ hold. Through the pitch dark of the room – there was barely even any moonlight coming in as most windows were covered by stacks of books and other equipment piled up in front of them – and cursed as he hit his hip on a desk and then almost fell over Elva, who complained angrily about the harsh treatment.  
  
  
A moment later, the bedroom door was slammed shut behind Gavin and Nines was alone. The brunet considered his options. He had not been invited to stay which would make it impossibly rude to do so. But on the other hand, the day followed by the chore of having to constantly keep racing thoughts at bay had left him too exhausted to be in any mood to leave and go back to his own flat. Without the option of taking a carriage to get there faster, Nines assumed it would take him at least half an hour to reach his destination, and, right now, that felt like far more than he could bear.  
  
So, without giving himself time to doubt his decision, Nines began to slowly move through the room, trying not to bump into as much furniture as Gavin had. He knew there was a divan in the far corner of the room that had a few books lying on it but was otherwise usable so that was where he was trying to get. Nines’ attempt at getting there uninjured was only semi-successful, however. He managed to navigate around all the furniture in the room but then hit his shins on the divan and let out a quiet curse.  
After the surface of the piece of furniture was cleared from all books that had been stacked on top of it, Nines climbed on top of it and, despite it being possibly the most uncomfortable thing he had slept on since his days in the army, he fell asleep within minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo I hope everybody liked this and I can keep you on the edge of your seats until the next chapter :D   
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated and again, don't forget to give the artist lots of love too!
> 
> Next chapter will be out in one week (18th november)!


	4. The unexpected strength of emotions

The next morning Nines woke feeling impossibly stiff and it took him several long moments to find out why that was. His memories only returned to him slowly but when they eventually did, they did so with full force. Nines remembered the pub, then the cold night air of London. He remembered walking down a mostly deserted street by Gavin’s side as they tried to follow the man named Zlatko, who might have abducted Alice Williams. Then, Nines remembered the end of their chase. How Gavin had pulled him forcefully against him and kissed him so they would seem like nothing but a pair of lovers out for a night on the town. Nines remembered the taste of whiskey and tobacco on Gavin’s tongue and how it had made his knees weak – and how he had had to shove the other man away to go and follow their suspect.  
In the end, they had not been able to find where Zlatko lived or where he might be keeping little Alice but for Nines this was by far not the worst part of the night.

With a heartfelt sigh, he sat up on the old, uncomfortable divan he had spent the night on. Nines’ muscles ached and he was not sure he would be able to turn his neck at any point within the next two days but the turmoil inside him was far more troubling than the minor aches spending a night on a hard surface brought with it. Turning almost his entire body around to spare his neck the pain, Nines looked at the closed door to Gavin’s bedroom. He had closed it himself the night before. After they had returned from their chase unsuccessful and Gavin had been too drunk to take care of himself once again. The detective had seemed terribly upset after Nines had questioned his motives for the kiss repeatedly. And yet, the brunet felt that he had been well within his rights to do so.

Trying to distract himself from the racing thoughts hurtling through his head, Nines got to his feet and moved to the small kitchen in the corner of the main room. He pushed aside some equipment Gavin would surely insist was vital to some of the experiments he conducted but since the detective was still fast asleep, Nines decided that, surely, he would not care. Nines filled the kettle and turned on the stove. And then he stood there, waiting for the water to boil and alone with his thoughts again. As it seemed, those were determined to drag him back to the previous night’s events over and over again.

Whenever Nines let his guard down for only the slightest of moments, he could feel Gavin’s hands grabbing the lapels of his coat and pulling the brunet close by them. Next came the feeling of Gavin’s lips on his and that was when Nines forced himself back into the moment. He did not want to linger on such memories, as all they would do was bring an almost insurmountable collection of problems for Nines.

Of course, his inclinations, as polite society would surely refer to them, were far from foreign to him. At a certain age, a young man was bound to realize that while all his friends went to find themselves wives, he had no interest in women whatsoever. And as any young man would, Nines tried to lock those feelings away at first. He accompanied his mother to all kinds of balls and social gatherings and let himself be introduced to all sorts of young, charming women. But every single one of them had failed to pique Nines’ interest and eventually, he had simply given up. People surely thought the brunet was being odd or had a very particular taste in women that none of the ladies he had been introduced to had been able to match and Nines was more than happy to let people think that. It was by far preferable to them knowing the truth.

But while Nines had long since made peace with the knowledge that, should he ever marry it would be to fulfill people’s expectations and not because he freely chose to, the circumstance that his heart had chosen to latch onto a man he was around so often and who seemed not to be interested in anyone, felt like divine punishment. Nines would have been happy to fall for maybe a stableboy at his mother’s estate or a barber he went to. Those would have been men he would not have been forced to see so often and that he would have no opportunity to approach in the way he desired either way. But with Gavin, things felt different.

Nines had already felt it when, by a stroke of fate, he had first gotten a chance to work with Gavin. He had just returned from the war and had not expected to find work again so soon. But then, Nines had found himself caught up in one of Gavin’s cases. He had argued with himself many times, trying to determine whether his admiration for the man’s skills or his annoyance with his ever-changing tempers was stronger but he had never quite come to a satisfying conclusion. All Nines knew was that he did definitely admire Gavin and the way he was able to solve the most complicated of cases. And for the longest time, Nines had assumed that it was all there was to his feelings.

The kettle whistled, dragging Nines out of the depths of his thoughts and back to the surface more rudely than the man would have liked. He took the kettle off the heat and went to look through the cupboards to find some tea and a mug. As he did so, Nines tried to focus all his attention on the task at hand, carefully attempting not to let his thoughts drift again. But as thoughts often did, they got away from him with ease.

When he had finally acquired a mug that was not covered in stains or strange substances and something Nines was mostly sure were tea leaves and not moss or mold that had collected in one of the cupboards, the brunet’s thoughts were already circling around Gavin once more.

It was strange, the brunet thought, how until the night before he had clung to the desperate hope that all he felt for Gavin was a deep and thorough admiration. But one press of the other man’s lips against his had rendered all thoughts to that extent null and void. As much as Nines hated to admit it, even to himself in the early morning silence of Gavin’s flat, he could not deny anymore that his feelings towards the detective went well beyond a strong but in the end harmless admiration. Frustrated with himself, Nines brought the cup to his lips well before the tea was ready or before the temperature had sunk enough for it to be enjoyable. And, of course, he burned his tongue on it and while he was in the middle of cursing under his breath, Gavin entered the room.

“Good morning”, Nines said, tears stinging his eyes with how badly his tongue was burnt, but Nines had been taught to always be polite and he was not going to break with his upbringing simply because he was hurting from something that was his own fault.

Gavin, however, seemed to have no such thoughts. He muttered something that might have been a greeting or possibly just noises strung together to give the impression of them being an actual word. In the end, Nines did not particularly care. He stepped aside as the detective made his way towards him and watched the shorter man rummage around the kitchen for several long moments. When Gavin had finally managed to pour himself a cup of tea, too, he immediately turned towards the table behind him and grabbed a bottle with amber liquid in it. Nines hoped for his partner and his own sanity that this was what Gavin was looking for and not some experiment he had poured into a whiskey bottle and then into his tea.

“What do we do now?”, Nines asked after some moments of truly uncomfortable silence in which Gavin, too, had taken a sip of his tea and burned his tongue. The brunet kept the question vague since he was not exactly sure himself what he meant by it. Sure, they needed a plan on how to find Zlatko again, now that he had escaped them before and possibly knew their faces. But at the same time, Nines wished Gavin would at least give him some acknowledgment that he remembered what had happened between them the previous night. The brunet did not even care what the other man would say. He would gladly take rejection if only it provided him with a certain answer and an opportunity to move on from the turmoil in his own head and the ache in his heart.

But Gavin did not seem to want to do him that favour. He stared into his cup for several long seconds, before finally lifting his head and looking at Nines.

“It will be hard to find Zlatko again”, the detective said, and he sounded genuinely upset, “I doubt we can find him at the same pub again. He surely assumes he is being followed now and will avoid the places he usually frequents. With someone like him, I would even doubt he will return to his place of work.”

“Then how do we find him?”, Nines wondered. That seemed to have been the wrong thing to ask. The thoughtfulness fled Gavin’s expression and left behind a mask of annoyance and frustration.

“Do you not think I have been asking myself that ever since I woke up?”, the detective barked and shook his head in anger, “There must be a way but I cannot find it yet. A detail is missing that would help me find him and I cannot figure out what it is.”

“Can I-“, Nines began, wanting to offer help but Gavin only sent a dismissive wave of the hand his way. The brunet closed his mouth, trying not to let the hurt show on his face. But Gavin did not seem to pay attention to him anyhow. Instead, he slammed his cup down on the kitchen table and walked back over to where he had pushed his armchair two days before. He sat down in it and was immediately deep in thought.

Nines sighed. There was no way now that he and Gavin would be having the conversation the brunet longed to have. Once Gavin was in his armchair, he was usually miles away mentally, trying to find missing puzzle pieces or clues he had not examined closely enough yet. He could sit in that chair for hours at a time without moving an inch and if anyone dared approach him while he was thinking, Gavin would lash out at them more often than not.

“I will be back in a while”, Nines called out into the room, only escaping Gavin’s wrath because the words had not been directed at him personally. The brunet grabbed the coat he had been wearing the previous night and left the flat.

Outside, the air was clean and crisp as it hardly ever was in London these days and Nines thoroughly enjoyed it as he began his walk back to his flat. He could have taken a carriage, of course. It would have been easier and faster. But with the mood Gavin was in and the unresolved tension between them, Nines preferred to walk and take his time to get from one place to the next. He was looking forward to the nice bath he would be taking once he reached his own quarters. It would help wash the sweat and grime of the last days off of him and possibly soothe his neck too. All in all, Nines was very fond of his plans for the day. The only downside to them was that walking through the streets of London all by himself made his thoughts inevitably return to the previous night. And no matter how much Nines attempted to distract himself with other thoughts, the memories would not leave him alone.

His mind kept circling back to that kiss and every time they did, it spread a strange, prickling sensation all throughout Nines’ body and his heart began to race. He pushed those thoughts and feelings to the side as much as he could but every time he did, they resurfaced with a vengeance soon after, and by the time Nines had made it back to his own flat, he was too exhausted to fight them anymore. There was no denying it, anyway. Nines was – and presumably had been for far longer than he cared to think about – in love with Gavin.

This realization followed him like a ghost as he took the steps up to his flat and clung to him as he filled the bathtub and got undressed. Nines tried not to acknowledge it until he was in the tub and surrounded by soothing, warm water but once he was, there really was no way to keep it at bay anymore. Recognizing it, however, opened the door to a whole world of other anxieties and worries. Of course, Nines could have those feelings and never act on them. He had fallen for one or two of the other men in his regiment during his time in the military and he had always managed to reign himself in and not approach them. But in comparison to what he felt for Gavin, the feelings he had had for those men seemed like nothing. What Nines felt for Gavin was much stronger, all-encompassing even and it felt like it was going to swallow the brunet whole now that he had finally accepted its existence.

As he washed himself off, Nines feverishly thought about what he could do now. There had never been any hint from Gavin that he might be reciprocating the feelings Nines had for him. If he was honest with himself, Nines had always assumed Gavin was simply in love with his work and the thrill of solving cases instead of any human that happened to cross his path. But if so, why had Gavin kissed him the previous night?

It was that thought that made Nines’ heart race against his ribcage because the sodden organ had decided to place all its hopes on this one instance. Rationality told Nines that, surely, it was as Gavin had said and he had simply been attempting to distract Zlatko and not been able to come up with a different tactic in the heat of the moment. But a part of Nines, one that he had kept locked away for longer than he first realized, reared its head and argued that it was still completely illogical and had failed its purpose as a distraction on top of that – so maybe there had been another reason behind Gavin kissing him.

But as much as Nines liked that thought, he did not allow himself to sink into it. If he ended up believing in that idea, he would only end up hurting himself, he told himself.

So, he finished cleaning himself and got dressed again. When he was ready, he hesitated for a moment, wondering if he even wanted to go back to Gavin’s flat at this point. And there was a part of him that would truly have preferred to curl up in his bed and stay there, wallowing in self-pity until someone forced him out of it, but there was still a young girl missing, and the man who had stolen her running free. Nines decided he could deal with his personal tragedy later and take care of those of Alice and her caretakers first.

He put on his coat and went to go outside but then, on a whim, went back and grabbed his revolver from its drawer in the bedside table. Nines was not sure he would need it but it had happened before that a case had seemed to have run into a dead-end only for Gavin to put a missing puzzle piece into place and them having to leave quickly and with little to no preparation. And while the brunet had no idea if and how dangerous Zlatko was, he always felt much safer with a weapon on his person in cases like this.

Satisfied with the amount of preparation he had done – as little as it was – Nines left the house again and returned to Gavin’s flat with his heart in his throat and an uncomfortable knot in his stomach.

When Nines entered the detective’s flat again, Gavin was still in his armchair, deep in thought and staring at the wall opposite of him.

“I am back”, the brunet announced, not sure if Gavin had even noticed he had been gone for well over an hour. The detective nodded absentmindedly but showed no signs that he wanted to talk to Nines any further. So the brunet grabbed one of the wooden chairs from the kitchen and dragged it to the living room so he could sit next to Gavin in case the man had something to say. But for the longest time, the detective simply sat there, staring at nothing while Nines sat in a chair next to him, reading a newspaper.

Nines had no idea how much time had passed when Gavin suddenly groaned next to him and left the position he had been in for the past hour or so. He stretched and then stared miserably at the floor by his feet until Nines put his newspaper down and looked at him.

“No new ideas?”, he asked, knowing full well that this was the case. He had worked with Gavin long enough to know the mood the detective would be in if he had found a way to solve their case after all.

“We just do not know enough about the man”, Gavin sighed, “Usually, I have far more information to work with at this point. But since the only thing I know about him is what others told you or me and what little we could see at the pub last night, there is not much for me to work with at this point. I have no leads and I doubt we will get another chance to observe the man like we did last night.”

“What makes you think that?”, Nines wondered. Sure, they could not try their luck again at the same pub but with everything they had learned about Zlatko, he was bound to show up at some other establishment in due time.

“It has been approximately three days since Alice Williams was kidnapped”, Gavin went on, “We cannot say if she is even still alive or not, even though I suspect she is. Kidnappers are far more likely to show their face in public to keep up a façade than murderers.” Nines nodded as the detective went back to his silent brooding for several long moments.

“But I fear that since Zlatko saw us last night, he might be suspecting that he is being investigated”, he finally continued. A grave expression overtook the detective’s face as he continued, “Which, in turn, might mean he is going to go forward with whatever it is he wants to do to Alice now before he gets caught.”

Nines swallowed thickly. Caught up as he had been in his own thoughts and feelings about the kiss, he had failed to take into consideration what all of this might mean for poor Alice. Sure, he had kept their case in mind but he had not thought much further than the fact that their suspect had gotten away from them and that now they had no idea how to find him again. But until now, it had completely escaped him that last night’s slip-up might have dire consequences for the little girl they were trying to save. The brunet felt very selfish all of a sudden.

“What do we do now, then?”, he asked only to earn himself a glare from Gavin.

“Will you stop asking me these things as if I would not tell you if I had even the slightest idea what we could do?!” the detective barked, “I have been wracking my brain thinking of little else but this all day. Trust me, if I knew what best to do, I would let you know immediately.”

“Excuse me for trying to help, then”, Nines hissed back, “I merely thought that maybe if you shared some of your thought processes with me, I might be able to assist you. But I guess I’d rather just leave you to brood miserably by yourself.” For a moment Gavin looked like he was going to say something back but then he merely resumed the position he had been in before and stared at the far wall once more, refusing to speak to Nines or even acknowledge the brunet’s presence.

Being all too familiar with the detective’s moods, Nines tried not to take it too personally, even though the treatment did hurt. But instead of trying to fight Gavin on that, he simply went back to his newspaper.

As it turned out, Gavin was not done brooding for several more hours. So, after he was done with the newspaper, Nines decided to go downstairs and pay Tina and Stephanie a visit. The two women were just having tea and eagerly invited the brunet to join them. Thus, Nines spent the following hours in Tina’s flat, talking to her and Stephanie and, of course, Gavin was one of the main topics of their conversation. When Nines told the two about their failed attempt at following Zlatko the previous night – omitting the part where they kissed for obvious reasons – and Gavin’s temper today, Tina went on a passionate rant about how Nines should not let himself get treated like this and how she was going to talk some sense into her friend. Nines and Stephanie held her back, though, and quickly changed the topic afterwards to prevent more frustration.

It was nice to talk about all those things with friends and somewhere deep down, Nines wished he could speak about his feelings for Gavin, too. If anyone would understand and not judge him, it had to be these two women. But in the end, the brunet was barely brave enough to admit his feelings for Gavin to himself. Telling anyone about them seemed like an insurmountable task. Maybe one day, when this was all in the past, Nines would be able to speak about it, he figured. But for the moment, he did his best to steer the conversation away from the topic of Gavin and decided to simply enjoy the time he had with Tina and Stephanie before he had to face the other man’s sour mood again.

By the time Nines finally returned upstairs to look after Gavin, it was already early in the evening. The brunet found the detective in the same position he had been in when he left him and wondered briefly if the man had eaten a single thing today. But before he could even open his mouth to say anything, the detective jumped out of his chair and began to pace the room.

“I cannot believe I was this stupid”, Gavin muttered to himself as he went, Nines standing in the doorway and watching in confusion.

“What do you mean?”, the brunet dared ask after a moment or two. Gavin seemed even angrier than he had before and Nines was not sure whether it was a good idea to speak to him at all.

“I am talking about the fact that I was acting like an absolute fool last night”, the detective complained, running a hand through his hair, “I got much drunker than I planned to and more than I should have, and left you in charge of our entire operation. If it had not been for you, I would not even have noticed Zlatko leaving until it would have been far too late. And then I could barely walk…”

“Come on, now, we all make mist-“

“And then the only diversion I could come up with was to kiss you of all things”, Gavin all but shouted into the room, and Nines’ heart nearly stopped in his chest.

“Now, that was not-“, Nines began, then interrupted himself to get his thoughts in order and finally said, “You already said it was not going to happen again. No need to think about it so much.” The brunet almost shuddered visibly at the hypocrisy of his own words and hoped the detective would not notice. Gavin seemed to be busy with other thoughts, though.

“You do not understand, Nines. This has been plaguing me all day”, he whined, still pacing around the room, “Every time my thoughts about our case come to a halt, all I can think about is asking myself why on earth I kissed you. And I know the answer is right there but it keeps escaping me and I do not know why. There were hundreds of other options, options that would have made far more sense. And this is what I chose. I want to say I was not myself but I feel like I was more myself than I have ever been in my life and I cannot say what that means. So my thoughts just keep circling and-“

At that moment, Nines stepped in Gavin’s way, grabbing the man by the shoulders and effectively stopping him from pacing. Gavin’s eyes were wild and the expression in them desperate as he looked into Nines’ eyes. The brunet knew he was taking a huge gamble here but if the other man’s expression was anything to go by, they were feeling very similar things at the moment. And if that was true, there was only one way to solve this misery. As much as Nines hated the prospect of it, talking about this seemed to be the only option for them.

“You said you were thinking about the kiss a lot”, he began, nevertheless, his grip on Gavin’s shoulders tightening, “Did you come to any conclusion why you did it?”

“I have thought of every option”, Gavin said, much quieter than he usually was, “And I was able to eliminate almost all of them, leaving only one theory.” Nines did not even have to say anything. Gavin averted his gaze, looking just over the brunet’s shoulder and out the window behind him. “The only somewhat reasonable explanation I have is that I wanted to kiss you. But I cannot say why I would…”

“Why not?”, Nines asked, his voice quiet now too. It felt like they were trapped in some bubble that would burst once one of them raised their voice and then the moment would be gone forever. Gavin’s hands moved to the front of Nines’ shirt and grabbed the fabric there in a tight grip as if the detective wanted to ground himself. Whether it was a conscious choice or not, Nines could not say, but he did not dare move and disturb him.

“It would mean that I-“ Gavin interrupted himself, looking at Nines’ face for the briefest of seconds, then away again. “I have never wanted to kiss anyone before. I do not think I have ever even been in love with anyone. But with you…”

Nines’ heart was hammering in his chest now, the brunet staring down at Gavin as if that would make him somehow look into his eyes again so Nines could gauge if what the other man was saying was true or not. He knew that Gavin had no reason to lie to him, especially about a topic such as this, and yet Nines did not dare take that leap unless the detective gave him some sign that he was willing to take it with him.

“And then you got so angry with me last night…”, Gavin eventually muttered, sounding defeated now.

“I was scared”, Nines said before the detective could get any further, “I worried that someone might have seen us. And I was confused because I did not understand why you did it. And because I did not mind that you did it.”

“You did not?”

Gavin finally looked into Nines’ eyes again, as if he could not believe what the other man had just said. There was an expression on his face that was full of equal parts hope and fear and that Nines was sure was mirrored on his own face. The brunet felt like he was well and truly standing at the edge of a cliff now, having to decide whether he would be brave enough to jump and risk it all or stay safe but unhappy at the top of that metaphorical cliff. After a moment of consideration, Nines finally decided that the look on Gavin’s face was enough to assure him that he was not alone in this and he nodded.

“I did not mind you kissing me and that worried me an awful lot”, he admitted, “I have been thinking about it a lot both last night and today. And I have come to find that I have feelings for you that go far beyond collegial admiration like I had first thought. I could not admit those feelings to myself for a long time because they scared me so much. But I did not mind the kiss and I cannot deny that I was hurt when you said it would never happen again.”

Slowly but surely, the expression of confusion on Gavin’s face was overtaken by one of understanding, and finally, a single sound escaped the detective: “ _Oh._ ”

The next moment, Nines saw Gavin getting on the tips of his toes, their faces getting closer once again.

But before their lips could meet, they heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs to the flat and they barely managed to jump apart, before Luther barged into the room, Tina following on his heels.

“Detective Reed”, the man panted, sounding like he had run a considerable distance to get here, “We found Alice’s stuffed animal by the canal. You have to come with me.”

Gavin and Nines exchanged a glance, then both men jumped into action as if prompted by a secret sign only they knew. Nines barely had enough time to grab his coat with the revolver still in its pocket, before he followed Gavin and Luther out the door and into the streets.

“I took her for a walk by the canal, you see?” Luther told them as they walked down the streets, Gavin and Nines trying their best to follow the other man on their much shorter legs, “Just so she would get outside for once and maybe think of something else for just a few moments. And then we saw the fox.”

“Did you leave it where it was?”, Gavin wanted to know, almost running to keep up with Luther now.

“Kara wanted to pick it up and bring it to you but I told her to leave it and bring you there instead.”

“Excellent thinking, Luther. You did me an enormous service”, Gavin praised the man, excitement now clearly audible in his voice. Not too far in the distance, they could already see the figure of Kara crouched down at the shore.

“Thank goodness you’re finally here”, she sighed when the three men arrived by her side, “Alice would never leave that stuffed animal behind. Something must have happened.”

Luther quickly went to comfort Kara, while Gavin stalked right past them and had only eyes for the small fox lying near the water. Nines watched the detective take a good look at the animal, then pick it up for a second before dropping it again. Then, Gavin rose to his feet again and stared into the stream passing them by. Nines could almost see the cogs turning in the man’s head and when they finally clicked into place, Gavin spun around to look at him.

“Come with me, Nines. I think I know where Alice is.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're racing towards the finish line, guys!  
> Next and final chapter will be out on sunday (22nd november)!  
> I hope everyone enjoyed and don't forget to give some love to the amazing artist [Josebean](https://twitter.com/jxse_the_bean)


	5. Two cases solved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The final chapter of this fic! Time went by so fast and I can't believe it's already over...  
> I hope everyone enjoyed themselves a lot reading this and enjoyed all the lovely art! I cannot say how happy I am that I got to work with Josebean on this! This was my first time ever participating in any (R)BB event and I couldn't have asked for a nicer person to be paired up with! Please don't forget to give them and their art some big love!

_“Come with me, Nines. I think I know where Alice is.”_

Nines followed Gavin down one of the roads that framed the canal on both sides, running faster than he ever had in an attempt to find Alice Williams before Zlatko could do whatever it was he wanted to do to her. As the sun was already beginning to set, there were fewer and fewer people outside and the few that were, threw the two men worried glances. Whether they recognized Nines and Gavin, the brunet could not tell and it did not matter. The people would surely have thought them strange for hurrying down the street like they were, no matter who they were.

The longer they walked along the street, the harder Nines’ heart beat in his chest – and not just from the exhaustion of running at a quick pace for an extended period of time. If Gavin was in a hurry like this, it surely meant he thought Alice was in grave danger and that they had to be quick to find her and prevent worse.

Sometimes, the detective would stop, causing Nines to bump into him once or twice. Every time, the brunet thought that maybe Gavin had found something helpful or that they had finally reached their destination – but time and time again Gavin only looked out into the murky waters of the canal, looking out for clues and currents before hurrying down the road once more.

Nines had no idea for how long they had been racing down the streets of London when Gavin finally stopped at a stone staircase that led down to a small walkway at the side of the canal. The detective looked into the passing stream one last time, then raced down the stairs and along the walkway. Nines followed as quickly as he could, wondering where Zlatko could possibly be hiding. The walkway led them underneath a bridge where it was almost too dark to see. Nines could barely make out Gavin’s form as the man let his fingers run over the stone of the wall to their left until he found an opening and vanished in it.

Following swiftly, Nines found himself in a pitch-black corridor. It was wide enough that he couldn’t reach the opposite wall if he was walking close to the left one. All he could rely on for orientation was the sound of Gavin’s sure footsteps in front of him. He could not say how long they had been walking in the darkness and it was becoming increasingly worrying. But then they turned a corner and a weak glow shone into the corridor. At first, it was barely there but both Gavin and Nines sped up at the sight of light and soon it became stronger and stronger until they could finally see the end of the hallway.

Nines was not sure what he expected to find on the other end of it and, on instinct, his hand wandered to the revolver in his pocket. One could never know what was waiting for them out there. Gavin showed no sign of discomfort or worry, however, as he boldly strode towards the exit. But Nines figured that it was simply another one of those times, where the detective felt so close to solving a mystery that he threw caution to the wind and simply rushed on without thinking.

Then again, it seemed like Gavin was not completely lost to caution when he suddenly stopped at the end of the corridor, body pressed to the wall and carefully leaning forward to see what lay beyond. Nines did the same and found himself at the entrance of a spacious cavern underneath the streets of London. He assumed it had been built as canalisation was created and allowed the workers a place to store their tools and belongings as they worked on the tunnels below the city. After work was completed, the cavern must have been abandoned – until someone turned it into a place where they could commit their crimes.

The brunet let his gaze roam along the walls of the cavern, trying to see if anyone was possibly hiding in the shadows, ready to pounce as soon as he and Gavin left the safety of the hallway. But then the detective tapped on his shoulder and pointed at something else in the room and Nines turned to look.

In the middle of that cavern, strapped to a table, was a young girl. She was eerily still to the point Nines assumed she must have been sedated. The room around her seemed empty but Nines had seen that there were some dark corners here and there and another corridor leading away from it. Gavin and Nines exchanged a glance before slowly creeping into the room. Nines’ heart was hammering in his chest as he looked around, trying to make sense of what was the reason for all of this. As they moved ever closer to the table in the middle of the room, the brunet could make out some strange, red markings on the ground that made the hair on the back of his neck stand for a reason he could not quite fathom.

Nines followed Gavin past where the girl was and to where another table and a stand with a large book had been placed. There was something on the second table, too, but Nines could not make out what it was as it was covered by a sheet. While Gavin turned towards the stand with the book on it, the brunet turned towards the table. But suddenly, Gavin placed a hand on his chest to stop him.

“You are a doctor. Take care of the girl first”, he told Nines and from one moment to the next the brunet felt absolutely horrible for not thinking of that himself immediately. Sure, he had no tools or medication here to treat the child but he could assess if any damage had been done to her and afterwards determine if they needed to leave the cavern even faster than they usually would.

Swiftly, Nines turned and walked over to the table and took a look at the girl bound to it. Between the descriptions they had been given by Mr. Williams and the stuffed animal that had been found by the canal, there was no doubt that this was Alice Williams. He felt relieved to have finally found the girl and to have found her alive mixed with worry about her condition. She was thin and very pale and while Nines could not tell if that might possibly be how she always looked, the bruises on her arms and face surely were not supposed to be there. But from what he could see right now, Nines could not make out any further or more grave injuries. He pressed two fingers to the side of her neck and felt her pulse, weak but steady, fluttering underneath her skin.

While the girl seemed fine now, Nines still hurried to undo the restraints keeping her tied to the table. He assumed that Alice had been given an anaesthetic to make her sleep through whatever her kidnapper had planned next and a gut feeling told the brunet that it would not be long until the man in question returned. They had to get Alice to safety and quickly before they could send anyone in here to take care of her kidnapper. It would be far too dangerous for the young girl to be around when a showdown happened.

So Nines undid all the restraints he could find on her body carefully but quickly and then lifted the small girl off of the table. He propped her up in a sitting position, leaning with her back against one of the table’s legs so her whole body would not be lying on the undoubtedly cold cavern floor.

The brunet was just about to turn around and tell Gavin that they should get Alice to safety first and then return and formulate a plan or possibly get reinforcements to capture Zlatko when he heard a shout and something falling over in the direction where Gavin was and spun on his heel to see if his partner was in danger. His hand flew to his revolver on instinct but at the sight before him, he froze.

Gavin was bleeding profusely from a wound in the place where shoulder and neck met. His right arm hung by his side limply, blood running down the length of it and dripping to the floor. A puddle was forming quickly by his feet. His other hand clawed at the meaty arm of someone behind him. It took Nines only half a second to look from Gavin’s shoulder to the face of his attacker and it came as no surprise when he looked into the eyes of Zlatko. They were different from what he had seen in the pub, though. The look in them was cruel and crazed, gaze flitting from where the man held Gavin against his own body and where young Alice Williams was slumped against the table. The knife with which he had stabbed the detective was still in his hand, the blade red with blood and pressed to Gavin’s neck. With only one arm, there was no way Gavin could fight his way out of Zlatko’s grip, and with the knife, to his neck Nines would not take the risk of attacking the man and possibly getting Gavin killed – and Zlatko knew it.

A nasty, triumphant grin took over his face.

“How unfortunate”, he barked on a cruel laugh, “You came so far and now there’s still nothing you can do to stop me. By the time the sun rises tomorrow, my plan will be completed and no one will find either of your bodies for a long time…”

“Why are you doing this?”, Nines asked, before he could stop himself. It was a ridiculous question and, really, it did not matter why Zlatko did what he did. But Nines needed time to come up with a plan to free Gavin and get him and Alice to safety. Unfortunately, his mind did not work as brilliantly under pressure as Gavin’s did.

“Look at the markings on the floor, Nines”, Gavin said, voice sounding strained. Nines did but he could not make any sense of them. They did not seem to be letters of any alphabet he knew. The brunet could not even determine whether they had been written on the floor in red paint or something much more gruesome. With more confusion than before, Nines looked at Gavin again.

“And now remember the article I read to you six weeks ago. About the secret group of men, who think they can create living machines…” Nines tried to remember the contents of the article but his thoughts kept circling back around saving Gavin and Alice, choosing to focus on that rather than on some trivia he had learned weeks ago.

“We can and we will”, Zlatko called out, voice booming and resonating off the cavern walls, “Just look around you, Gentlemen. Time is moving faster than ever. Something new is invented almost every day now, a new machine to make everyone’s lives easier. Machines have replaced the common man in the workplace in many places already. It is only a matter of time until they replace the common man altogether. And when they do, I want to be there. Even though I must admit, I do what I do mostly out of scientific curiosity…”

“What are you doing?”, Nines wanted to know, “And what do you need this innocent girl for?”

“Well, you see, machines might be able to do the common man’s work but they lack certain human qualities”, Zlatko answered eagerly, “They are not alive, you see? And this is where this little darling comes in. She delivers the most vital part for my machine: a heart. And a strong one at that. I have tried with other girls before but all of them were spoiled and weak so their hearts would stop beating rather quickly once I transferred them to a machine. But this one? One night of speaking with her father and I knew she had been through so much in her young life. She had to be strong to survive all of this and her heart would have to be strong too. She was the ideal candidate…”

Zlatko droned on further, going on and on about how his experiments made him feel so very alive and how he could not wait to bestow the gift of life on his machine too. Nines listened with eyes widened in shock at the cruelty of this man until movement at the corner of his vision caught his attention.

Gavin was looking at him and trying to give him a sign. Nines’ gaze immediately zeroed in on him and he was ready to do whatever was necessary. Carefully, as not to alert Zlatko to the fact that they were forming an escape plan, the detective moved his leg in an aborted kicking motion and then gave the slightest nod towards Nines. The brunet understood immediately. Gavin would hurt Zlatko so the man would lose his focus and then it was Nines’ duty to take the man out. Nines nodded equally shallowly to make Gavin see he had understood and was waiting for him to set their plan in motion. Meanwhile, his hand crept towards his revolver while the brunet kept looking at Zlatko to make the man think he still had the brunet’s undivided attention.

Then, Gavin moved his leg swiftly but mercilessly, the heel of his shoe meeting Zlatko right where the shin met the knee. The taller man screamed in pain and, thankfully, dropped the knife he had been holding to Gavin’s neck until now. Immediately, Nines’ hands flew to the revolver in his pocket and before he had even consciously aimed the weapon or chosen to shoot, a gunshot rang out. The sound of it echoed against the walls and before it had died down completely, Zlatko’s heavy body hit the ground, dragging a weakened Gavin down with him.

Nines dropped his revolver and was by the detective’s side in an instant. He helped Gavin move Zlatko’s arm away from him and got the other man to sit so he could take a look at the wound in his shoulder. But there was too much blood for the brunet to properly assess the damage done. With nothing else in sight, he grabbed the sheet from the table he had seen earlier and pulled it close. Dragging the sheet away revealed a creature made of metal that only very vaguely resembled a human. But Nines had no time to look at that now. Instead, he pressed the fabric to Gavin’s shoulder, trying to stem the blood flow enough for him to get a better look at the wound underneath.

“How are you feeling?”, he asked the detective. Nines obviously knew that the other man was not feeling good right now but he had to know if he felt pain elsewhere or a strange sensation somewhere in his body.

“I have been better”, Gavin muttered, gritting his teeth as Nines put more pressure on his wound.

Then, suddenly, something pulled on Nines’ coat and the brunet dropped the sheet to turn around. Heart hammering in his chest, he found himself face to face with Alice Williams. She still looked somewhat dazed but there was fear in her eyes at the same time. And when she opened her mouth the only thing she said was:

“I want to go home, please…”

Nines took care of both of his patients as well as he could with the limited resources he had on hand. Thankfully, no harm seemed to have been done to Alice yet except for the bruises he had seen earlier and the fear she must have felt these past days. She cowered next to Nines, clinging to his coat as if he was going to run off and leave her behind if she did not stay close to him while he worked on Gavin’s wound. Thankfully, Zlatko seemed to have missed the main arteries leading through that particular part of Gavin’s body so it was hard but not impossible to stop the blood flow. Still, they would have to get out of here and fast. The dirty rags Nines had at his disposal were a sure way for Gavin to catch an infection if he did not change them soon.

“Do you think you can walk?”, he asked, earning an eye-roll from the detective.

“He got my neck, not my legs. I should be fine”, Gavin answered but accepted the hand Nines held out to him to help him get back on his feet. He swayed slightly where he stood – presumably dizziness from the blood loss – but looked like he was otherwise ready to walk. Nevertheless, Nines wrapped an arm around Gavin’s hip and the other man seemed grateful as he slung his arm around the brunet’s shoulders, giving him something to lean on as they walked out of the cave.

“Take my hand”, Nines said, turning towards Alice now. The young girl still looked frightened but with no other option, she chose to trust Nines and took his hand.

Slowly but surely, the three of them made their way out of the cavern and back through the corridor. Alice had to walk behind them for that part, clinging to Nines’ coat as they went. The brunet kept whispering reassuring words into the darkness – whether they were supposed to calm Alice, Gavin, or himself, he could not quite say at that moment.

Then, they stepped back out onto the walkway next to the canal and were greeted by dozens of lanterns on the other side of the bridge. Nines soon realized that Kara and Luther must have alerted Scotland Yard to the situation as he quickly recognized the constables’ uniforms. The three of them had barely made it out from under the bridge when Nines heard a familiar voice.

“Alice!”

The brunet lifted his head and saw Kara and Luther standing at the top of the stairs, a look of worry and horror falling from their faces and being replaced by one of sheer relief.

“Kara!” A smaller voice behind him called out. Alice let go of his coat and somehow found a way to weasel past Nines and Gavin. She ran past all the constables and raced up the stairs right into Kara’s arms. It was a heart-warming scene to see them reunited and Nines could not help but smile at the sight.

“Good job”, he whispered to Gavin, who only let out a tired, dry laugh. All of a sudden Nines was reminded of the task at hand and began moving through the mass of people around them. More than once the brunet almost slipped and stumbled right into the canal but he managed to regain his footing each time.

When they finally reached the top of the stairs, Kara was far too preoccupied with looking Alice over to make sure she had not been injured to even notice the two men passing them by. Luther did look up though, sending a grateful smile their way. Nines smiled back, somewhat tight-lipped and strained from the effort of helping keep Gavin on his feet but it was no less genuine. The brunet truly hoped that the three of them would be able to live together as a family and help each other leave the terrible events of the past days behind. 

“Are you alright?”, another familiar voice asked next to him and when they somehow managed to turn around, Nines found himself in front of his brother, Connor.

“I am fine”, he said, gesturing vaguely towards Gavin, “But I need to take care of him. Is there a way for you to get us a carriage?”

Of course, there was one. Connor could be incredibly persuasive when he wished to be and this time was no exception. So, after a quick stop at Nines’ flat so the brunet could get his surgeon’s tools, they were rushed back to Gavin’s flat in one of Scotland Yard’s carriages. 

Gavin complained all the way up the stairs and into his room, where he promptly collapsed on the bed.

“Do not fall asleep”, Nines instructed him, as he took off his coat and threw it in a corner of the room, “If you fall asleep now, you might not wake up again if I am not quick enough to stop the blood flow.

“No need to be quite so reassuring, Doctor”, Gavin groaned while Nines grabbed a bowl of – hopefully – clean water from a desk at the other side of the room and some clean linen from the closet next to it before returning to the detective’s side.

“I am just telling you how it is, Gavin”, Nines replied and grabbed a scalpel from his bag to cut away the fabric clinging to the wound.

“After all this time you finally use my first name and it is in the moment when I lay dying”, the detective sighed dramatically but even out of the corner of his eyes, Nines could see the broad smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“I never said you were dying.”

Nines focused more on his work after that, refusing to react to any of Gavin’s comments. He had not even noticed that it had been the first time he actually used the other man’s first name. It had simply come to him and it had felt right and now he was quite certain he was never going back to calling the man ‘Reed’ ever again. At one point, he gave Gavin a mild anaesthetic so he could work on his wound without causing too much pain and that made the other man go quiet. He would still occasionally turn his head or attempt to speak to Nines but for the most part, he was quiet.

In the meantime, the brunet finally managed to stop the blood from flowing out of Gavin’s shoulder unhindered. Once that had been accomplished he could take a closer look at the wound and found that while it was deep enough to cause serious harm, it seemed to have missed the main arteries as well as the most important muscles and nerves there. Or at least that was the conclusion Nines came to when he moved Gavin’s arm about a bit and squeezed it and the detective kept whining wordlessly about pain. Once that was dealt with, Nines grabbed a needle and thread to close the wound, which resulted in more squirming and complaints from Gavin. But it did not take long, thankfully. And once it was done, Nines was ready to collapse on the bed next to Gavin. Finally, he bandaged the wound as well as he could with the detective fully dressed but too exhausted to move. The result was not ideal but there was nothing more that Nines could do at this moment.

He grabbed a chair from the living room and dragged it over to the bedroom to keep watch over Gavin in case his condition should worsen. Not long after, Elva joined him and took up residence in the brunet’s lap. Soon enough, Nines dozed off in that very chair, with Gavin’s cat in his lap and the detective himself sleeping soundly on the bed.

When Nines woke again the next morning, Elva was gone and so was Gavin. For a moment, the brunet panicked but then he heard voices in the next room and one of them was unmistakably that of Gavin. Nines waited until the conversation had ended and he heard the door to the hallway close before leaving the bedroom to check on the detective.

“Good morning, Nines”, Gavin said immediately upon the brunet entering the room and turned towards him with a smile on his face, “I hope the chair was not too uncomfortable to sleep in. I would have tried to wake you up but I thought after all that we had been through, you needed the rest.”

“That was very considerate of you”, Nines replied, rubbing at his neck that was still sore from the night that he had spent on the divan. Surely, sleeping on a chair now had not made it better but at the same time, he was glad that Gavin had let him rest. He could not tell how long he had slept and still, he felt exhausted beyond reason.

“Who was at the door?

“Oh, that was just Tina,” Gavin explained, then sighed, “Apparently Scotland Yard and some reporters for the papers are already crowding outside our door to speak with me.”

Nines could not help but sigh too. He thought that after a year of working in this field together, he really should not be surprised by Scotland Yard and the press hounding them the moment a case had been solved, and yet here he was. It could not have been more than ten hours since they emerged from that tunnel with Alice Williams by their side and people were already eager to hear the story with all its gruesome details. And while Nines understood that this was very much part of their work, he was certain he would never really come to like it.

“I guess you should make yourself look presentable, then”, he told Gavin, already making plans on making some tea for himself and enjoying some moments of quiet up here in the flat while Gavin was downstairs dealing with reporters and constables. But Gavin simply shook his head.

“Not yet”, he said, turning fully towards Nines and walking over to where he stood until there was barely an arm’s length left between them, “I told them I needed some more time to attend to some private business first.” 

“And what would that business be?”

Nines was quite certain he knew what Gavin was talking about and yet, he did not want to be the first to be so open about it yet again. He had already taken the leap the last time they had been alone like this and thought it only fair that Gavin be the one to take up the torch now. But at the same time, the brunet felt immense relief knowing – or at least hoping – that Gavin was not about to ignore everything that had happened between them yesterday and the night before that. Sure, their case had been more important for a bit but to know that the detective cared enough to get back to the topic still made Nines’ heart beat faster in his chest.

“Well, if I remember correctly, we were in the middle of kissing the last time we spoke”, Gavin said and Nines’ heart almost leaped out of his chest at that, “As well as confessing our feelings for one another. But, personally, I think the kiss is more important…”

That being said, Gavin closed the distance between them. The two men moved towards one another and met each other halfway. Nines was so happy he thought he would die when he felt the press of Gavin’s lips against his again. It had been confusing but not unpleasant the first time it had happened, but now that he was certain that this was something Gavin wanted too and that it had not just been a mistake on the other man’s part, it felt a hundred times better. The brunet allowed himself to sink into it, placing one hand gingerly on Gavin’s uninjured shoulder in an attempt to ground himself while the detective took his breath away.

In the end, Nines could not tell for how long their kiss had lasted. It could have been five seconds or five hours – neither would have particularly surprised him. But when they broke apart, they stayed close enough that all Nines could see was Gavin’s face in front of him and the happiness in his eyes. It was an expression the brunet usually only knew from when the detective had solved a particularly difficult case. And even then it was not as all-encompassing and excited as it now was. Nines could hardly believe that this was what kissing him made Gavin feel like.

“Do we still need to confess feelings or do you think this is a clear enough indicator for our intentions?”, Gavin asked, gathering his wits about him faster than Nines could. The brunet could only nod before he pulled the other man in for another kiss.

They stayed like this for a while longer, standing as close to one another as they could and kissing occasionally while they basked in each other’s presence. Nines never wanted this to end and he felt like Gavin’s feelings on the matter did not differ much from his own. But after a while, the detective did indeed have to get ready to face the crowd outdoors.

“We will have to remain professional in public”, he said while Nines helped him into a different shirt. Gavin only hissed in pain once or twice when he had to move his right arm too much but otherwise, he managed to stay silent.

“Obviously”, the brunet replied. Society surely allowed Gavin to get away with some of his stranger habits but he doubted that they would turn a blind eye on their relationship too. And while part of Nines was upset by that, a different part found that he did not care too much either. As long as there were moments, where he could be with Gavin and would not have to hide the true nature of their relationship, it would be enough for him. And one look into Gavin’s eyes told him the other man felt the same way.

“I have been thinking”, the detective continued after a short pause, “And I have decided that it would be much easier for us to work together if you lived here with me. I would not have to send a carriage to get you every time I needed you here. Tina and Stephanie would be happy too…”

Nines cut Gavin off with another quick kiss, then looked at him with a wide smile on his face.

“You do not need to persuade me to get me to move in with you”, he said and Gavin’s face lit up once again, “I would like nothing more than to live here with you and make this flat our sanctuary. Besides, I think your landlady is far less likely to tell on us than mine is.”

“Oh I am sure she will be thrilled”, Gavin said with a laugh that shook his entire frame, “She will also tease me mercilessly but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

Nines could not help but laugh at that and then they were kissing again. It seemed to happen so naturally now and the brunet could not wait to move in with the detective and be able to do this whenever he pleased. The thought alone made him so excited, he felt like a giddy schoolboy the night before Christmas.

“If I move in, however”, he told Gavin eventually, “You might have to share that armchair of yours with me.” Both men looked at the item of furniture in question. Of course, Nines’ comment was meant as a joke but both men knew how important the chair was to Gavin and how much he hated sharing it.

“Not to worry”, the detective answered immediately, “I will get you your very own armchair so we can sit by the fire together like an old, married couple.” That comment, too, was not meant as anything but good fun but when the two men looked at each other, it was clear on both their faces how much the thought of growing old together appealed to them. Nines was just about to say something when there was a sharp knock on the door to their flat.

“Gavin, people are waiting for you!” Tina sounded quite annoyed so the two men hurried to get Gavin dressed and ready to face the crowd waiting outside.

“I will be back as soon as I can”, Gavin said with an apologetic expression on his face.

“And I will be right here waiting for you”, Nines answered with a smile. Then, he pulled the detective in for another kiss.

Both men smiled as they parted. Gavin left the flat to go downstairs and face the reporters and constables. And Nines grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil to draft a list of things he would have to bring from his old flat when he moved in with Gavin. He knew that they were progressing rather quickly – after all, they had only had their first proper kiss about half an hour ago – but the brunet would not want it any other way. He had spent far too much time away from Gavin and now, he was not going to spend even a single day apart from him anymore…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we are! Now the doctor and the detective can live together with a cat and their lesbian friends from the other flat and everything is going to be happy and perfect forever!  
> I'd like to give one final shoutout to SpringlockedSpectre for being such an enthusiastic and patient beta!  
> And now I'm going to sit down in a corner somewhere and feel weirdly nostalgic now that this fic is over!


End file.
